Originally Posted by
172_driver
The Airbus is a genetically modified aerodynamic creature that doesn't behave like an aeroplane anymore.
If you mean that the chore of trimming has been designed-out, and path stability designed-in on the A320 family; well that's technological progress.
I don't think that many of us would prefer to go back to operating a manual choke in our cars - these days the electronics do that for us. I don't think many of us driving auto gearbox cars would prefer to go back to changing gear and pushing the clutch manually - certainly not in traffic jams.
I don't think many pilots would prefer to go back to using paper charts and a CRP-5 for navigation; the modern electronics do a much better job. These auto aids leave the pilots freer to be more aware of busy airspace around them and manage the overall flight more efficiently.
Of course, pilots do need to be able to fly safely when the electronics are not available, so we do need to do something to keep our manual skills and our instrument scans from rusting too far. e.g. 3 mandated manually flown raw data ILS approaches each, in every 6 month period.