Originally Posted by
G0ULI
Reviewing various videos of the flight, I see a slight hesitation in pitch as the aircraft is descending through the vertical. The pitch change seems to stop for just a second or so before continuing. This might be a video artifact, the pilot realising he has a big problem, or simply the angle between the camera and the aircraft.
It may be that the hesitation was an attempt to maximise airspeed in order to pull a higher G recovery in the final quarter of the loop. I don't think it has a great deal of relevance to the final outcome, but it might serve to indicate that the pilot was fully aware that there was a problem at that point and was doing his best to try and recover the situation.
It also might suggest that the pilot was trying to invent a recovery procedure without having trained for that eventuality before hand.
Lemain
I must take issue with you suggesting that the AAIB investigators were not completely competent and exercising due diligence throughout this investigation. Such comments are unworthy of this forum.
I noticed the apparent hesitation on the backside of the loop as well and surmised earlier that since he appeared to be somewhat south of where he intended to be, he was thinking (analyzing in AAIB terms) instead of pulling while he was orienting himself and/or deciding how to regain position for his flyby north of the show line. It also suggests a lack of urgency at that point about pulling out - either he didn't check his gate height or misread it as has been suggested.
The time to accelerate to cornering speed is immediately after coming over the apex; he should have had plenty of speed by the time he was going straight down. I was surprised that the AAIB report of test flights did not show any benefit of different flap settings or power changes in minimizing altitude loss on the backside of the loop. In any event, accelerating straight down and not pulling when you think you might not make it would definitely be counter-intuitive at that point.