Hi
HN39,
I was reading an old post by
Chris Scott (#1060 7/9/11 AF447 Thread #4)
I don’t think much would happen to the THS during the initial rotation from level flight, as it would have required little up-elevator to enter the climb. Once the 7000ft/min had been achieved, the trajectory would be maintained by the EFCS even with no back-stick. As the speed started to drop, more up-elevator would need to be introduced by the EFCS to maintain 1g, and it would then start to trim the THS a bit to retain full elevator authority. Once the aircraft got on to the back end of the drag curve, however, this process would proceed rapidly.
In fact the PF arrested most of the climb at FL375, by “nose down control inputs...”, so some down-elevator may have been used briefly by the EFCS at this point. This partial recovery was to be short-lived, as the PF seems to have reacted to a stall warning by selecting TOGA (causing a pitch-up) and resuming “nose-up inputs”. Resuming the climb at that point, on the wrong side of the drag curve, was when the EFCS had to start using up-elevator and nose-up trim (THS) in earnest, in order to try and maintain the trajectory it thought the PF wanted.
I wonder if this could explain your graph findings of the elevator leading the SS?