Originally Posted by Svarin
In the Perpignan accident, manual pitch trim was not used.
In this accident, it would appear it was not used either.
Perpignan was a test flight where they tried to kick "Alpha prot-Alpha max" at low altitude with defective AoA probes. They had no time to recover from FL380 like AF447 was. I think I do remember that those test pilots crashing in Toulouse (1994), very close from recovering from a low alt LOS with an engine stopped on test purpose, used manual ths trim. But what would be the point if they did? They would have been authorized and any other pilot forbidden.
Originally Posted by Svarin
The fact that the manufacturer left this manual pitch trim wheel in the cockpit does not exclude the fact that in real life, in real airlines, on board real airplanes, pilots are actually taught not to use it, and never use it, according to design.
Right, of course: it is like having a "direct law" with only manual THS trim available, with a message poping up and saying "Manual pitch trim only"... WTF!!! I won't ever use this cr@p or I'll be fired!
Your position doesn't make sense: it is not "per-design", it is not "forbidden": it is always better not to have to use it (like being in normal law instead of direct)... up to the point that you need it!
Now, how training is performed is a different issue.