Quote from Clandestino:
"I was trying to point out discretely that you haven't read the part of AF447 report dealing with TAM incident which puts "kid gloves approach" straight into "old wives tales" category - something that has some basis in reality but through misunderstanding and misinterpretation diverges rapidly and significantly from it."
Setting aside your presumption that I hadn't read the reference to the TAM incident in the AF447 accident reports, are you suggesting that a "kid-gloves" approach would have been unsuitable in that case? Are you arguing that the extreme control inputs and attitude changes that the BEA describes were necessary and desirable to survive that UAS event? If not, just what point are you trying to make that places a "kid-gloves" recommendation into what you contemptuously describe as the "old wives' tales category"?
As a coplilot on B707s, I was on a flight where the AP went u/s before TOC out of Caracas for London at night. The captain and I took it in turns, of about 20 mins each, to handfly the a/c for about 7 hours. Fuel considerations necessitated step-climbs. It wasn't difficult, but it required unbroken concentration and - yes - a gentle touch. Our passengers didn't want (or need) to end up wearing the food that the flight attendants were serving them.
Quote from me:
"Regular hand-flying practice reinforces the understanding that in level cruise-flight, regardless of turbulence or windshear, any pitch attitude more than 2 or 3 degrees above or below the norm is unsustainable unless you want to climb or descend."
Reply from Clandestino:
"Regular use of autopilot does not absolve the pilot from obligation to check instruments. Idea that you need to handfly to know your typical flight-phase-related attitude is so unrealistic it... sorry, I can't find the phrase in English."
Never said it did. However, are you familiar with the concepts of "hands-on experience" and "human nature" ? Are you suggesting that a passenger who has never driven a car can take over suddenly and do as good a job as the driver, just because he has watched from the back seat? And in any case, are you suggesting that flight crews should and do spend hours monitoring every small change of attitude made by the AP?