Perspective
Garage Years, # 926
The pictures are nice, but they show a misleading perspective. The photos are taken using a very wide angle lens, in order to capture the whole cockpit in one view. The downside of such a view is that objects seem to be much further away than they really are: you would think it is about a mile to the instrument panel, actually the observers knees are pressed against the pedestal, the view towards the sidestick is obstructed by the broad shoulders of the pilot, etcetera. If the pictures had been taken by a lens more closely resembling the acute field of view of the human eye, about four pictures had been necessary across from left to right and three rows from top to bottom.
Unfortunately, the pictures that I have to demonstrate this, contain recognizable pilots in view, so I will not post them here.
Chriss Scott, # 924
Well said, although I would change your statement
"why did the PF demonstrably embark upon and maintain a clearly unsustainable climb from level flight? "
into "a clearly unsustainable pitch attitude"
I know it runs into semantics, because you can reply that clearly they managed to sustain the pitch attitude all the way down into the ocean, didn't they, but is was the unrealistic pitch attitude that caused the speed loss and subsequently the stalled condition.