Originally Posted by
RetiredBA/BY
My two penneth!
[...]
So BA has an engine failure in a 320 but the captain was unable to control airspeed, or so I read, no surprise there if pilots are not allowed to use manual thrust but can despatch with inop auto throttle. Bizarre.
Quite. Another irony of any ban on use of manual thrust on the A320 family is that, once engaged, it is smooth and responsive, with none of the hysteresis that we used to experience on non-FADEC jets like the B707 (JT3D), VC10 (Conway), BAC 1-11 (Spey), DC-10 (CF6-50) and even, IIRC, the A310 (CF6-80). That applies, BTW, to both the CFM and IAE engines.
Finally, IMHO, use of A/THR in single-engine flying is not to be recommended. Why would you want to couple an engine failure with an introduction to the extra mental load of using manual thrust? So much easier if you're in practice.