Counter-pointer, tapes, et al
Heh heh, back to the "crowd" from this peanut gallery member.
I agree mostly with Derfred - attitude, not altitude. Just holding the existing attitude and power using inertially-derived sources would seem to have been the best procedure.
The "tape" presentation of altitude in the two planes I flew with them was easy to interpret, and a trend was very easy to detect by the rate the numbers were moving bigger or smaller, duhhhh.
In the Sluf, we also had an instantaneous vertical velocity scale that could be presented next to the altitude "tape", and it could be removed/displayed using our de-clutter options. Sucker sure helped on an ILS or PAR approach. But the flight path marker "ruled", and no air data required. My static system freeze was no problem, even tho that jet's HUD used baro data for the altitude display. Stay on same attitude, use normal power setting and configuration, and wait for the radar altimeter to tell you below 5,000 feet.
I don't side with the 'bird on this one. The rapidly moving "tape" display is a good indication of "trend", and then you might be able to actually read the altitude if the sucker wasn't going as fast as AF447.
back to the peanut gallery.....