Originally Posted by RightWayUp
If the Captain is as experienced as the report suggests then he must be aware of the lack of control feedback that the Airbus gives. The fact that he then allows a very low hour first officer to attempt to land in those conditions is surprising.
I tend to agree.
I flew the A320 family for about 3,000 hours, and with FO's with a variety of experience levels. My company's approach was that FO's have landing limits of 2/3rds that of the aircraft, unless flying with a training captain (I was not one).
It was not then within my remit to offer sectors outside the Ops Manual. I remembered as a junior FO myself being happy to let the captain do strong crosswind landings himself, and to build up my experience over time - I would not have appreciated being given as a junior FO a max crosswind with gusts landing with only a few hundred hours total time, so I agree with the company philosophy in the early year or so (mine were on the B737-200).
The Airbus brings other factors to the equation, as mentioned, re the lack of feedback from one side to the other. In marginal conditions I believe that the captain needs to be fully aware of all inputs at all times with visual cues, and therefore that it is better that the P1 handles the aircraft (for which he/she is responsible) , as I don't believe that exercising the sidestick priority button is in any way desirable, and should be an emergency action, and not a planned one, and neither should PNH sidestick input be anything other than in an emergency on line operations.
None of this is to suggest that a captains role is not to encourage First Officer experience and to develop confidence.
Adopting that strategy, in over 4 years I never had to take over an approach, never pushed the sidestick priority button other than in the simulator and never had to input any sidetick guidance at all.