Thanks guys for all the info: long,short,simple and technically challenging.
My profile is probably well out of date, just like my indepth aerodynamic knowledge.
I believe my ATPL is around 12 years old and my cpl 18 yrs, my first swept wing wide body commercial jet was back in 1989.
What does all that mean? not a lot really when your trying to understand a new aircraft
type.
I don't have the time at the moment to fully understand some of the principles involved but I do appreciate the thoughts and now have a much better practical understanding of what might be going on.
The simulator backs up what the manual suggests so I believe the aircraft should do likewise if you were ever in the unfortunate position to see it.
The return to wings level and 33 deg when the stick is released in both cases is very precise, which leads me to think that the primary (or secondary)flight control computers are at least partially responsible for the recovery or maintaining it.
I think that the last time a non AB test pilot switched off the flight control computers in flight at altitude, it took around 18000ft before they managed to recover control!
note: without the computers the side stick is just something else to hang on to!
I don't think I'm brave enough to even try letting the simulator recover from an overbanked spiral condition with the computers switched off to test this theory further.
cheers.