Originally Posted by
Retired DC9 driver
I would regularly, hand fly the 319/320/321 with A/T Active. Never saw the Speed Mode go wonky. Say Expressway Visual into KLGA, , at Peths go , "Auto Pilot Off", "Flight Directors Off" , "Speed Push", then Gear Down , Landing check. Hand fly, along the Long Island expressway, in Speed Mode. Pick up the VASI rolling out on final...
Same going into Las Vegas from the East, for the 19L/19R Visuals, or Slam Dunk into KSFO, from the North, ... "have you got the San Mateo bridge? cleared Quiet Bridge Visual..At that point, you better dive down, Autopilot Off, Speed Push in the right turn..
Maybe you forgot to Activate Approach once..then when you go "Speed Push", the engines roar up to 250 knots..
I don't understand what you're getting at here? Are you saying you would fly these approaches with manual thrust or that you wouldn't feel comfortable flying them with manual thrust and instead use auto-thrust?
Personally, I would be of the opinion that if you don't fly these approaches with manual thrust, even on perhaps more challenging days, albeit with everything working normally, how can you count on yourself to fly them manually on the days where things may not be working perfectly and you're forced to do them manually for the first time?
Any sensible company policy should recognise this and thus encourage maximum appropriate use of manual thrust on all approach types, not just ILS to ILS, so that if they have to be done in anger due to systems failure/downgrade it's second nature to the pilots flying them, and doesn't eat up any additional capacity, as it's ingrained in the muscle memory not something that requires any extra thought, like riding a bike.