Quoting Sully.
“Now it might take ten or twelve presses of buttons on the computer to arrange for a runway change.”
Not in the A320, which Sully has been flying for many years. A runway change if done smartly, can be achieved in the press of 3 MCDU buttons and is much easier than re tuning an ILS in a steam driven aircraft.
“An example that comes to mind is on descent to the destination (whilst already hot and high), only to be given track shortening at the last moment. I've seen more than a few of my partners in crime work themselves into a frenzy, with fingers moving at light-speed across the myriad of buttons on the glareshield as they try to salvage the descent/approach profile. All of a sudden, an already high workload is pushed over the edge - and personally I find it much easier to just disconnect everything at that point and do it the old-fashioned way”
Bunglerat, what exactly does hand flying the jet achieve that the autopilot can’t when left hot and high? Can your arms extract a little more speed brake deflection than George can?
A lot of the issues discussed here arise from poor training and lack of understanding how the automated systems work.