Quote from RAT5:
"I wonder how many pilots of any modern jet a/c have hand flown their steed at high FL's. During LT I always used to introduce the student to such a heresy. You could sense the pitch response in <100' deviation to avoid apoplectic ATC queries, and somewhere en-route, if you're lucky these days, there might be a track change sufficient to feel the roll sensitivity.
If cruising below RVSM it was also interesting, and if ever you found an opportunity above, it was more so.
Most enjoyed the experienced; some were nervous as a turnip on Halloween and even declined. To my knowledge it is not a standard LT item. However, when asked why do it; I replied that a u/s AP was not a reason to ground the a/c. It would still fly and be controllable."
As you say, this seems to be regarded as a heresy today, yet the lack of a serviceable AP is not necessarily a no-go item (admittedly, I don't have an A330 MMEL to hand). Yet an A330's flying characteristics at M0.82 at FL350, for example, are not much different from first or second-generation jets at the same speed and altitude. The difference is that C* presumably makes pitch control much easier on the A330 than on traditional types, as it certainly does on the A320.
On one flight in the 1970s when I was on the B707-320, the single AP went u/s in the climb out of Caracas for London. (No A/THR on that type, although the F/E would assist.) The skipper and I shared the handling, including step-climbs eventually to FL410. No RVSM in those days, admittedly, but handling to within plus-or-minus 100 ft was quite feasible for about 20 minutes at a time.
It's worrying that handling skills and practice have allegedly lapsed to a point where most pilots regard cruise flight as being beyond their remit except, of course, in a very-rare failure case. As I wrote in post #1146:
"...Although it would have to be in Normal Law, regular practice of handling cruise flight, including step climbs and descents, at least puts pilots in a stronger position to handle abnormalities such as befell AF447. Easy to read that a pitch change of one degree represents a VS change of about 800 ft/min at Mach 0.8; quite another to be in regular practice at doing it. Thus, the management of pitch & thrust become second nature, instrument scan is improved, and the panic factor in failure situations significantly reduced."
I could have added that using manual thrust at the same time would be useful training for the UAS case - in terms of both throttle handling and observing power settings.