Because he had confused the two axes, as the aircraft had taught him to, in the thirty seconds it took to kill them all? Have you never fixated on one cue, ignored another? Believed one, and not another? Always trusted dials and completely eliminated sensory? I think he fixed on Roll.
Isn't it clear that whatever he saw v/v Pitch, he pulled anyway? Aren't we looking for reasons to explain this lapse?
This is my point. In AL2b the aircraft behaves schizophrenically, by definition. It required a skill that this pilot had not only not practiced, but may not even have been aware of. Machinbird has explained this, and his comments are instructive. I think Roll had PF totally consumed, so by inferring that he saw AI and "should have" mastered AOA, is presumptive. This flight was lost in the first fifteen seconds, and simply by degrading into a Roll mode that demanded the complete attention of both pilots, such that they lost the awareness of flight path that may have saved them.
No one needs 'twitchy', not in those circumstances....
Last edited by Lyman; 8th November 2012 at 16:39.