JD-EE;
I also note plaintive requests for experience flying ALT2 - I wonder how often A330/A340 aircraft fall into ALT2, how often they train for it, and, in only a semi-serious tone, is ALT2 survivable? It is apparently rare. (And, yes, some people appear to have survived it.)
From experience and from the paucity of responses regarding Machinbird's request for "Alternate Law" (1 or 2) experience, it is indeed a very rare event.
Alternate Law itself, like Direct Law are, (or certainly should be for A320/A330/A340 crews), non-events, especially if one is accustomed to and has practised one's craft by manually flying the machine.
Notwithstsanding 'only partially-serious', talk of "survivability" is like saying is walking down an escalator that isn't functioning "survivable", or crossing the street without traffic lights? These things do have risks associated, but one simply responds appropriately.
To pilots new on the airplane it would take a few moments to get used to the directness of the controls but it would be nothing they wouldn't be familar with from earlier, conventional controls say on the B737.
There is no mystique, no mystery about this "Alternate Law" thing...and if we think about it, no airliner would ever be certified if such reversions were difficult to control or had a propensity to diverge into unstable flight.
These are fundamental design and engineering notions and expectations. In Direct Law, (not the case here), the airplane has all flight controls with NO failures. The pitch trim is manual and in the simulator at least, one simply trims the airplane the way its always done with conventional flight control systems.
All control "feel" in the control column is, and has been for fifty years, artificial feel which is "built into" the system to approximate the feel of the need to trim...there is NO direct feedback from any flight controls on any airliner flying today that provides feedback to trim the aircraft. It's usually done with springs and whatnot.
On the A330, when flying in direct law, one must be careful with the rudder, (due no limitations) and one must trim the aircraft - to do that, one simply rolls the hand wheel fore or aft to trim out the forces, just like one did on the B727 or DC8...trim...wait...trim...wait, etc. There is rudder trim but no aileron trim.
Every simulator session I've had, has practised Alternate Law due to various system failures which we practise. Once in a while with a dual hydraulic failure or the emergency electrical config the aircraft reverts to Direct Law. Again, it is a non-issue.
In certification work by the FAA, the A320 as been flown and landed using only differential engine thrust and only manual trim...not using the stick at all. I've done that in the sim on the A320 as part of the initial check-out on the airplane...you can land the airplane on trim...its a mess but that is where I would use the term "survivable".
That can't be done on the A330/A340...too much mass, too difficult to anticipate pitch changes and the exercise becomes an out-of-sync PIO until the "firm" touchdown or other such "arrival".