Originally Posted by
parkfell
The use of A/T is highly addictive especially when linked into the TOGA mode. They must be taught to follow the TLs forward every time the TOGA button is pressed.
When they forgot to follow through, you fail the A/T and let nature take its course......they soon learn. Their brains are hardened & they are unlikely to forget.
Kudos for that. Proper use and monitoring of the autothrottle has suffered with the advent of FADEC - back when there were cables hooking everything to the thrust levers, it wasn't particularly uncommon for high down stream cable forces to cause the throttle clutch to slip on one (or more) engines and the associated thrust lever to lag. Hence the need to 'follow the throttles'. With FADEC, such problems are rare (although they do still happen on occasion due to an obstruction in the aisle stand itself), allowing some pilots to become lazy...