RE Various posts
In the early 80's I believe NASA did some testing of deep stall characteristics using a single place T tail Schweitzer 1-36 which was modified to permit the horizontal stab to angle nose down to about 45 degrees. The pictures of tell tail streamers angled up about 45 degrees to the wing mean chord in a steady stable descent was arresting. I don't recall any longer whether a single angle of descent was explored or whether the H stab was capable of various nose down settings allowing a variety of descent angles to be investigated. But the point was that a stable controlled descent in a fully stalled condition, well in excess of the perhaps 13 degree Wortman airfoil stall AOA of the 1-36 was achieved. And, importantly, was repeatedly recovered from.
There have been quite a few (not necessarily connected) posts now from pilots apparently familiar with the A320 suggesting that a combination of thrust moment, auto fly to G, mode of readouts, lack of pilot SS feedback, narrow speed margin, warning chaos, and possible rapidity of AOA change in relatively rare turbulence, not to mention pilot error (however small) and confusion over what the control system is thinking could ALL have contributed to two accidents where a stall all the way from altitude to impact occurred. There are more recently some hints (and counter opinion) that, once stalled, the A320 control system might actually be attempting to hold the plane in a stall.
A few posts have argued about whether the horizontal stab and elevator act to counter wing airfoil pitch moment, or to produce dynamic stability which is to a degree needlessly confusing because both moment forces and dynamic stability are involved. But those posts did not mention (and I don't think anyone has) running a relatively aft cg via fuel transfer to reduce drag by streamlining the Hstab/elevator, for fuel savings of course. I would appreciate some better detail from an A320 pilot on 1) whether and to what degree fuel transfer is used to supplement aerodynamic trim, 2) at what point in a flight is fuel transfer usually performed, 3) if fuel transfer is employed, is there an SOP for reversing that transfer in anticipation of encountering a storm line, and 4) wqhether the FDR would record fuel transfer events. Running on the ragged edge of an aft CG, even if inadvertant, of course would not be the best situation from which to begin an altercation with bad weather.
Jack of All, thanks for that post. How rapidly is the training you took being distributed through the entire pilot complement?