With three Airbii in the water after something resembling a "full aft stick stall" (T-38 stuff) and a Colgan Q400 crashing after a similar stunt; I am bugles by the pilot reaction to yank BACK. Where are they learning this?
Well, the first (XL) crash was more of a mouse trap where defective AOA data allowed the aircraft to slow to a stall (trimming as it went) and then at the stall, dropped into a mode that required manual trim (probably without
adequate warning to the crew) so that as the aircraft accelerated under TOGA thrust, the nose climbed uncontrollably, stalled, recovered only to fly into the water due to inadequate recovery altitude. The crew was actually pushing as hard as they could. I wouldn't count that one.
AF447 was the first piloting failure where the guy flying lost control of pitch and spent a lot of time with too much aft stick.
QZ8501 is now the second of these strange aft stick events where the pilot flying lost the bubble and ended up holding in aft stick where it wasn't needed.
In both of these accidents, they started with a roll PIO which is an extremely concerning situation to the pilot. I cannot state that I know a reason that this would cause a pilot to pull full back stick, but we now have two Airbus instances of unexplained inappropriate aft stick plus the Colgan accident.
It could be something as simple as an inadvertent reaction by a pilot who's scan has broken completely and who is trying to hold his posterior in the seat in a manner to which he is accustomed.
Somebody had better be doing some basic research PDQ on human response to better understand the reasons for this "Pull the Stick" phenomena. Then we can actually fix the problem.
I have no gripe with Airbus Normal Law. What I have real problems with is the
transition to Roll Direct as part of Alternate Law.
Letting an unsuspecting pilot start flying in Alternate law with Roll Direct before he understands fully the implications of that configuration, is asking for trouble. If a pilot is startled into making a large
initial correction or if he naturally pilots with large stick motions, he is very likely to set up a roll PIO. Roll Direct requires gentle control motions for success, particularly at cruise altitude where damping is low. Roll PIO destroys the trust that a pilot has in his flight control system and (empirically) can fully saturate a weak pilot's scan in seconds.
There is a lot that can be done to make the transition to Alternate Law easier. I would hope that Airbus will give that area some study.