I flew today my first AT OFF approach, the least I can say is that it was much easier than with it turned on.
Not only for the reasons listed above in this topic. Maybe the main reason was more related with the AT itself. On most of my previous approaches, it was commanding too much thrust during speed reduction, leading to a longer delay between platform speed and Vapp.
There were some gusts and up/downdrafts, keeping a constant thrust made managing the entire thing easier in my opinion. The speed varied within +/- 2 to 3 kt yes but the trajectory was the best I performed in my short experience so far on this plane.
The OP's stated problem does not really exist in practice with professional pilots, because if it did, there would be weekly AAIB reports of non-FBW aircraft going out of control.
It does happen sometimes... I chatted with my instructor who described having seen pilots with catastrophic hand flying skills.
I also saw that for myself, when I was in training a few years ago, the school used to host airline evaluation sessions in their sims. One of the instructor showed me the plots for a few approaches of the preceding week. Out of 20 candidates, more than 3 had crashed the plane, during a normal ILS approach in IMC with no failure.
These were obviously not hired, and I hope nobody hired them since. But if they managed to get through somehow, somewhere, this is precisely the type of pilot that would get tricked by this kind of behavior. They probably got tricked by exactly that one in that sim. The descent was idle to the ground.
Has anyone got any knowledge about the A220 ?
A friend told me that it displayed the TRS, and that the speed bug could move by itself, and that it was recommended or mandatory to synchronise the TRS with the speed bug.
If yes, it's a bit stupid. For example, on an airbus 320, if you want to accelerate from V2+15 to 250kt, you just slightly push the stick.
On the B777 you have to trim all the way, but increase the speed bug only once.
On the A220, possibly you would have to trim all the way, but also increase the speed bug in steps. That would be multiplying the number of actions to do.