HAND FLYING IN CRUISE.
Since the current paranoia about hand flying in RVSM, how many F/Os and indeed current captains have had the pleasure and satisfaction, as well as the competence, to fly the 'frame at cruise altitude and even curent max ceiling?
I would not be surprised if neither of the AF447 F/Os had any significant useful current experience in the unusual handling characteristics of their craft at such altitudes, most handling experience now appears to be limited to the lower levels.
This may account for the oscillations observed from FDR, so why is this high-level handling skill being written out of the requirements for Public Transport pilots?
A few minutes in the simulator does NOT suffice to "train" our colleagues in such handling, which is occasionally required when the automatics give up.
Perhaps a climb to and leveloff at cruise altitude should be an item to be assessed in annual line checks, hopefully the presence of 3 fully qualified pilots in the flight deck would prevent the (rightfully) much feared altitude excursion but permit real life high-level handling?
Otherwise how will we get operating crew who are experienced and reasonably current in AIRCRAFT CONTROL at all parts of the legal operating envelope?
My fear, when I'm SLF, is that I'm boarding such a flight where (both of) the Magenta Kids are INCAPABLE of handling the aircraft in S&L at cruise altitude, never mind the trim runaway case where the problem will be compounded by forces and reactions never before experienced by those allegedly in charge.
So part of the UAS training should include a box in the line check form that the candidate is at least capable of handling the REAL aircraft in the cruise and hopefully when things start to go "twang", ALL of us are at least capable of keeping blue-side up, brown-side down whilst the problem is diagnosed and sorted?
I suspect that not only were the AF447 drivers confused by the performance instrument indications, but that the manner in which the 'frame reacted to control inputs was outside their experience, for the reasons I've just offered.
P S. For the beancounters and managers, such online training should not incur a cost penalty, except the automatics are not controlling the flight to cruise level so the odd kg of fuel might be consumed but immeasurable and trivial compared with the valuable experience and knowledge gained by crews?