KG, I do not feel more a manager on the Airbus than on the Boeing. Day to day flying is exactly the same: program the FMC, take off, autopilot on, autopilot off, land. However...
There are some neet things that the 320 does for me which the 737 doesn't. It tunes my navigation radios automatically, it sets the courses on the ILS. It starts the engines for me. It handles the pressurisation completely automatically. I don't have to crank 4 switches to get engine anti-ice, just two button pushes. If I forget the packs, it will tell me. It will tell me the signs are on. I physically cannot make a PA over the ATC radio. My seat moves electrically. My seatback reclines. It will calculate my Vapp and it will make sure the groundspeed stays constant during the final approach. All this makes the Airbus very comfortable to fly on a day to day, sector to sector basis. In no way do I feel like a manager. If anything, it makes me feel a bit lazy. But if needed I can revert back to basics on all these points in an instant. I can manually start the engines, I can fly my own Vapp, I can tune whatever radio I want.
Of course there are things I do not like on the 320. The seats have no sheep's skin. The reading lights are vastly inferior compared to the 737. The only way to tell the FMC that we are going around is to actually select TOGA power. The FMS is not user friendly. The wipers are as useless as on the 737. ECAM, QRH, FCOM take years to really understand. Still, the word manager is not what I would call an Airbus pilot.
