A320 Thrust

[PappyJ]

There are very few times - if any to date - that I disagree with Dreamland, but this is one of them.

Airbus Golden Rule # 1...

Automated aircraft can be flown like any other aircraft, including the use of sidestick, rudder and throttles / thrust levers.

Followed by....

Airbus Golden Rule # 6...

When things don’t go as expected, take over!

I would suggest that you keep your hands on the thrust levers until the flaps are at zero and guard them again when you start to configure for landing.

Is, in my humble opinion, a very good suggestion. But not for most of the reasons stated.

Configuration changes. This is a time when a lot of logic changes take place. An effed-up FMGS, FCU, etc, could choose one of these times to put the aircraft/FADEC into a mode that would best resemble "Thrust Idle, Open CLIMB", (example which has been known to happen at least once that I, and Dreamland, are absolutely aware of). There are several other possibilities that can be thought of that could effect both flight path, and thrust control.

Keeping one hand on the stick, and the other on the thrust, until the aircraft is fully stabilized is not a bad idea as it requires your hands to be in the correct place when unexpectedly having to execute Golden Rule number 1.