Originally Posted by
before landing check list
So here goes an answer flown an AB aircraft;
Flight 296 in Paris. I do not think the pilots flew into those trees on purpose.
I'm not willing to go into that one again in public so I'm putting together a PM for you, but I will tell you it wasn't in Paris, it was at Habsheim/Mulhouse airfield, which I think is in the Alsace region. I will also tell you that a lot of second and third-hand information on that incident came from poorly-translated, largely inaccurate and occasionally sensationalist press articles.
Originally Posted by
IcePack
Also if you go hands free from straight & level, neutral stick, the a/c tends to climb at high level due it trying to maintain 1 g.
Originally Posted by
EGPFlyer
To be honest I don't know how the A330 differs but if you disconnect the autopilot in level flight at altitude the A320 will pitch up slowly. I know, I've done it.
It's a quirk of the A320 which was corrected in the later models (A330, A340 and A380) from the outset. It may have even been corrected in later A320s.
Most of the time you're at cruise - i.e. at an altitude where this becomes noticeable - in an A320 which exhibits this quirk (or indeed any other modern airliner for that matter) will be spent under FMC (autopilot) control with altitude hold engaged anyway, so it rarely comes up.