Wondering why we are talking about "pitch rate" command versus "pitch" command. Can't command a rate directly, nor pitch itself, so to get a "pitch" value you must hold the stick fore or aft to get there, then adjust because the 'fuser is still trying to command a gee value - nominal one gee corrected for pitch attitude. Am I reading the manual wrong?
That being said, what in the hell are the pilots doing trying to follow the FD's? That's one theory out there on the streets, from what I have read.
I have always felt that a constant nose down attitude and some power to gradually fly out of the stall that the jet experienced would have been possible. 5 degrees, 10 degrees, no matter. Very glad a few have tried it in the sim or calculated the required maneuver. The jet does not have a pitch coefficient moment as we had in the Viper at 40 or 50 degrees AoA that prevents a nose down pitch moment using elevators and the THS.
If there is one thing about our primitive FBW system, it was a force transducer versus a position transducer for pitch and roll commands. So to hold a pitch attitude other than what Otto was trying to achieve to meet the gee command ( trim gee not a default of one gee), we had to exert "x" pounds. Releasing the stick commanded Otto to resume the trim command we could set. The 'bus does not allow the pilot to command a trim gee. So the pilot has to hold the stick fore or aft to get away from that one gee default trim condition. This feature was rather intuitive, despite lack of movement. To fight nose up trim we had to push forward, and vice versus.
This is still a great thread for discussion, and I am honored to be able to bitch and moan and contribute amongst all the commercial pilots here.