4000+ TT Airbus 319/20/21
1000 TT B747-200
1000+ TT B747-400
In seven years spent flying the Airbus I could never quite shake the feeling that it was designed by an engineer whose true desire had been to design the pilot out of the equation
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I never was a fan of the non-moving throttles (oops, thrust levers) nor the unconnected sidesticks (are we in gusty wind or is the other guy over-reacting on the controls?) I also disliked the way they rode turbulence: it has been almost five years since I got off the Airbus and got on Boeings, and a couple years ago I began to wonder, why don't I never hit turbulence anymore?
Finally, as many have stated, when all is working well Airbuses are fine, but when things go wrong, boy they go really wrong, and it can be quite confusing on a dark night with degraded flight controls and a three-page ECAM.
However many colleagues (good pilots I respect) swear by the "Airbus philosophy" and seem very content to fly nothing else for the rest of their careers. Admittedly the Bus is more comfortable... better ergonomics, great seats, fairly quiet, good air conditioning etc. And if it means a promotion/better base/lifestyle etc, then probably don't think twice about it. Who knows, you might even like it better, there's only one way to find out.
Personally I still love that (small) part of our job that is intimately knowing exactly what attitude to set for a given weight/speed, gently placing the aircraft there, setting the correct thrust, trimming the control forces out, and then observing that airspeed and altitude settle nicely and behave exactly as you planned. On the Airbus, I had lost these small pleasures...
MD