Originally Posted by CONF iture
The cockpit displays only include what is believed to be Valphaprot and Valphamax according to the FAC ... but such characteristic speeds have theoretical values, and knowing that Asseline was playing in that area, it should have been the most natural thing for the BEA to communicate those values in their report.
It seems reasonable to me that the BEA saw no need to communicate them because neither pilot made any reference to those speeds, not in the briefing nor in the execution of the demonstration. That in itself may be considered a a major flaw in their preparation of the flight. What if they had arrived at Valphamax, the throttles still at idle, the sidestick on the aft stop, at a height of 30 ft?
In the energy plot shown in
post #772 it can be seen that Bechet lost 89 ft of total energy after he started to move the thrust levers until 5 seconds later the engines had spooled up sufficiently and the total energy started to increase. Bechet could absorb most of those 89 ft out of his kinetic energy, but if the speed drops below Valphamax it is not possible to arrest an increasing rate of descent.