Having a dead stick and throttle must be the worst design flaw in any modern airliner, no wonder the french are taking the A320 designers to court.
What in the world are you guys talking about "d/c the A/T at any time" ??? what does that give you? CLB thrust when you want to decend? Manual thrust?. how is this rectifying the fact that the A/T provides no feedback, keeps you effectivly out of the loop and does not give any early warning of an A/T failure?
Dead stick dead throttle. Do you know the likelyhood of ending up with a dead stick? Absolutelty minute. In 8 years and 6000 hours on the Airbus I've had ONE failure in flight of one of the FIVE computers. If you lose all five you can still fly the aircraft through rudder and trim whilst you get at least one of the flight control computers back online. The chances are extremely slim.
To play devils advocate - how many rudder hardovers does it take to spin in? No I don't want an A versus B debate but some of the comments about Bus are just not valid/biased.
Yes -shock horror you CAN disconnect the A/THR at ANY time - wow!!! If you disconnect the A/THR correctly i.e. retard THR LVRS to the present thrust postion as indicated on your engine display and then disconnect, you get........ current thrust. Why would you get CLB thrust?
It's true that A/THR does not give physical feedback by moving the levers so you DO have to adapt and improve your visual and aural scan. In 8 years this has not been a problem for me.
If you've disconnected the A/THR you won't get a warning about A/THR failure.....coz it's not in anymore. If it's active and it fails - believe me you will get a warning!
I think the comment about the French taking Airbus to court just shows what a stupid world we live in - and is symptomatic of the "let's sue someone culture" so beholden to those on the other side of the pond.....
If you operate the aircraft how it is supposed to be operated then it's no big deal.
A4