Anyone remember "step on sky"? Unload the plane to zero AOA and use rudder to level the wings
Works great on some airplanes, AA over Long Island not so much
Yeah, except we don't use rudder to level the wings in commercial jets. The rudder is immensely powerful, especially with twins, and has to be treated with respect.
Well, actually years ago American Airlines had an Advanced Aircraft Maneuvering Program that taught aggressive use of the rudder to level the wings in an upset recovery. This AAMP was all the rage in airline training departments and in my opinion rudder use was sometimes implemented to an extreme degree in recovery profiles.
As the FAA put it in the 'Lessons Learned' from the AA 587 crash:
8. The American Airlines Advanced Aircraft Maneuvering Program ground school training encouraged pilots to use rudder to assist with roll control during recovery from upsets, including wake turbulence.
9. The American Airlines Advanced Aircraft Maneuvering Program excessive bank angle simulator exercise could have caused the first officer to have an unrealistic and exaggerated view of the effects of wake turbulence; erroneously associate wake turbulence encounters with the need for aggressive roll upset recovery techniques; and develop control strategies that would produce a much different, and potentially surprising and confusing, response if performed during flight.
From: lessonslearned.faa.gov
AA Captain Warren VanderBurgh, famous for his 'Children of the Magenta Line' speech, is also closely associated with the AAMP.
These days, rudder kicks in airliners to recover from an upset are definitely no longer in the vogue I would say.