Originally Posted by
Banana Joe
Is it a big NO-NO to fly through the flight director on the Airbus? Would it trigger some protections?
Because it's what I do all the time when flying manually. For example, out of our base for a departure that initially takes us to the North, passing FL60 we're often cleared to any waypoint that could be also in the third page of the LEGS page. It will take around 5 seconds maybe to select it, ask me to confirm and execute. In the meanwhile, I am already established in a 25-degree bank angle turn with the vertical FD bar fully deflected to the side. It will recenter.
Its a No on that one, the manuals clearly state that if the FD's on they should be followed to avoid a conflict between what the FMGS is commanding the Athr to do and what you are flying manually, it can get embarrassing . The normal case is to switch the FD's off during manual flight if flying visually automatics off. If you have a full and comprehensive knowledge of how the AP/Athr/FD/FMGS and Side Sticks all inter relate with each other then what you are doing in the departure is OK-ish if not sanctioned. If you want some real excitement try a FD off manually flown SID. Tried it once, didn't like it! :-)
That said, I just remembered that at LGW there was a SID that we were told to manually start the turn inside the FD bars command so that we complied with the noise abatement measurements. It would always flag up a noise transgression if you left NAV to do its work!