Lyman,
I'll give it one go then I'm back into hibernation.
[quote] If from the initial PITCH up command, the THS had been trimming the command, the a/c would have STALLED well before the top of climb, where there was no energy left, and the STALL was unfelt, unobserved (per your comment). [unquote]
You keep writing as if the THS has a life of its own. It hasn't. It is slaved to the elevator through an integral term (see the block diagram PJ2 posted a while back). It WAS trimming in the initial phase of the second stall approach - it moved from around 2.5 deg to around 3.4.
It matters not one jot whether the pitching moment comes from elevator, THS or some combination thereof. The aircraft responds to the total pitching moment commanded by the pilot and there is absolutely no evidence to the contrary. That being so, the THS movement would have no effect on the point at which the aircraft stalled - it was merely sharing out the commanded pitching moment to minimise elevator movement.The time at which stall occurred was driven purely by pilot input as a commanded 'g' history.
I did NOT say the stall was unfelt or unobserved. I said that it was difficult to distinguish between turbulence buffet and stall buffet and that there were no pitching moment breaks. As a nonpilot writing in a professional pilot's forum I try to avoid sticking my neck out where it can get chopped off, so I was careful to say that the other clues indicating stall (high attitude, inability to arrest rate of descent) were best left to pilots to evaluate.
I did not add of course that there was this little matter of a voice calling STALL STALL every five seconds or so.
All in all I cannot accept that the stalled condition was unrecognisable.
[quote] Had it not remained at -3.4, then, the a/c would have fallen out, buffeted, and the two man crew would be left with inescapable evidence that STALL recovery was a necessity. Point of fact, the a/c would have recovered on her own had she been allowed to STALL. Instead, the a/c drained energy until at full power, when it mushed into an attitude that was to remain until water contact.[unquote]
Since stall AoA is independent of THS setting, your argument won't hold. The aircraft WAS allowed to stall and it did buffet. Just allowing the aircraft to stall won't get you out of it unless you remove the pitching moment that is holding you in there. This didn't happen.
[quote] It stands to reason A) you are not wrong, [unquote]
True
[quote] and B), the lack of SA, CUES, and CRM prevented the crew from sussing the STALL. [unquote]
Also true
[quote]No judgment, no accusation. It remains that had the a/c STALLED earlier, the cues would have been present and the outcome may have been different. No?[unquote]
No