RWA :
"...when coordinating ailerons, rudder, and elevators became automatic..."
The 320 does that *automatic* bit for you. Through the FCS.
..."From what I gather, to bank say right, you move the sidestick say two inches to the right, and then let go (and, being spring-loaded, the sidestick centres itself). The aeroplane then banks right..."
No ! Once again, the side-stick displacement commands a roll rate, or in other terms how fast you're gonna bank that airplane. leaving it in that position, the bank angle will keep on increasing at the same rate.When you move it then toward the centre, you'll slow the rate and annull it when the side-stick is centered : you have just asked the FCS to fly a new flight path with a G-demand, and it'll stay there until you cancel it. To that effect, move the stick in the opposite side and the stick will demand how fast you'll be having a bank command to that side, whether in order to reduce the rate of turn, to achieve a wings-level flight or to do a spiral in the opposite direction...within 5 degrees of wings level, it will center by itself.
There is no perceivable lag between command and aircraft response.
..."My question is, lacking the 'feedback' and self-centring that aeroplanes with normal controls provide, how do you know that you have exactly cancelled the previous bank command; and not either left some bank on, or corrected too far the other way? ..."
The true red herring...As far as I know, there is no *self centering* in any airplane I know except Airbus products : the pilot constantly moves the flight controls in any given circumstances...if not, he has achieved a damn good trim and his "stability augmenting system" is outstanding...until the next disturbance...
As for feed-back, I probably do not understand the term as it is meant by others. I will do what is necessary to get the response/state I require from the aircraft, on some, I may need some reverse aileron to maitain a given turn...on the Airbus, I get exactly what I want in the simplest way possible.
..." I HAVE done plenty of crosswind landings - and I can't readily imagine a situation where I had to wait to see what the aeroplane did, or look at anything other than the yoke, to find out whether I had actually given the aeroplane the 'command' I intended or not?..."
As I said, one moves the flight controls in order to achieve a given manoeuvre, regardless of the kind of airplane one is flying, regardless of the system one's airplane is operating on, be it even a side-slip. Piloting is about making sure that the airplane is EXACTLY placed, in the right configuration where it should be, as the pilot has decided.
In that respect, the precision of the Airbus system is peer-less, and a lot more intuitive than non-Airbus pilots would ever imagine.
Big problem is they don't imagine. Easier to criticise out of spite, prejudice, ignorance...
Their loss.