Originally Posted by CONF iture
Why would they try in a simulated session as a sim is not representative of real life.
If I may add to DW's reply: It should not be assumed that the simulation was done in a training simulator. More likely it was done in an engineering simulator, or perhaps just in a computer.
1.16.3.3 Analysis of the flight control law
(...)
A simulation of the operation of the flight control computers was undertaken, which involved recalculating the movements of the elevators and of the trimmable horizontal stabiliser (THS) based on pilots’ inputs and compared the results against FDR parameters. This simulation was continued up until the end of the flight.
1.16.4.1 Aircraft behaviour
A simulation of the aircraft behaviour was conducted based on the theoretical model and on the PF’s inputs (sidestick and thrust). The validity of the model is limited to the known flight envelope based on flight tests. Consequently, it was possible to conduct the simulation on the period from 2 h 10 min 00 s to 2 h 10 min 54 s.