But please educate me as to how (at the critical flaring stage) I could make certain sure that I had only applied a maximum bank angle of 5 degrees?
On an airliner, except the very few which have a very flat instrument cap - a la Tristar -, it is wise to give the PFD and especially the artificial horizon a quick look in order to make sure one's wings are level.
Seat-of-the-pants flying doesn't apply any more here.
Especially in an A320, that provides no 'feedback' on the sidestick? And PLEASE don't say 'by looking at the indicator on the panel'.
You are confusing a lot of things here : your controls position, be they a yoke, a stick or an FBW sidestick will not give you ANY indication on your aircraft attitude : it will come only from a glance at your PFD.
in my limited experience you simply can't afford to spend time doing that in the flare in any sort of difficult landing, and anyway there's a 'lag' in the instruments?
Oh yes, but you do ! And there is
no time lag that you could measure in tenths of a second (moden instruments depend on electrons...which are faster than your neurons / synaptic connections !
Face it, flying a jet has very little to do with visual cub piloting...We are as a matter of fact always on instruments at diverse degrees...we've replaced the *relative nose / horizon* position of the light aircraft with a more accurate re-construction of the outside world... Part of being a jet pilot, I would guess and actually, the PFD is always in our line of vision and scanning it is an acquired technique...A second nature.
You certainly don't have somehow to ensure that you don't exceed a bank angle of 5%?
On most jets, these 5° are about the limits you'll have to respect if you value the bars on your shoulders...they represent your protection from a pod strike, hence the important value of a final glance at the flare.