Originally Posted by
gums
I don't think that's entirely accurate.
I guess it depends on how the phrase is interpreted. Commanding a pitch attitude with the stick will cause autotrim to maintain the pitch attitude at the point the stick was released to the best of its ability.
Best I can tell from the reversion sequence, the "autotrim" for the THS is in effect until in DIRECT law ( or maybe sub-law 2 (c) iv /sarc off).
Put more simply, autotrim is active in all laws and sub-laws except Direct (and MAN PITCH TRIM ONLY).
So relaxing stick with a positive pitch attitude would "normally" result in increasing THS until the AoA functions kick in.
Releasing the stick effectively commands attitude in Normal Law and all modes of Alternate. Releasing at a given pitch attitude will cause the flight control logic to gradually release the elevator demand used to acquire that pitch attitude as the trim takes up the slack.
It's different to other implementations, but in terms of airliner ops it makes sense. The fact that it works cannot be denied.