Airbus... Why "Autothrust" and not "Autothrottles"

[Uplinker]

aa73;

With all due respect, I would suggest that you keep an open mind, and don't knock something until you try it.

Before I started flying, I too had a number of jumpseat rides (in the days when you could), and the first time I watched a 767 crew fly, I wasn't sure who was flying or exactly how the crew were telling the aircraft to descend etc. But this was only because - at the time - I wasn't an airline pilot, so did not understand airliner SOP's or two crew operations.

Your stated position that control of the A319 was confusing to you does not neccessarily mean that there is anything remotely wrong with the Airbus design, but might mean that you - never having flown one - simply did not understand what was going on. From the jumpseat, it is easy to miss certain subtleties of communication between a professional crew, especially if they are using different SOP's to those you may be used to.

Automatics are becoming good enough to make our lives easier, so why not embrace them? Would you rather fly an aircraft without FADEC's for example? I think most commercial airline pilots would agree that if you actually want to FLY an aeroplane these days, a modern airliner is not the right aircraft - try a Tigermoth or a Pitts Special.

I personally like the fact that an Airbus goes where you point it, and stays in that general attitude until you change it. I also like the fact that it looks after all the pitch-up-in-a-turn and pitch-power couple elements etc.

The age-old 'thrust levers not moving' attitude is becoming a little wearysome. On an Airbus, you watch the PFD. In normal flight; if the speed trend drops towards the bottom of the speed bug, you expect to see the thrust increase, so you glance at the NI or EPR gauges, where you see the engines wind up a little. You get the information through your eyes instead of through your hand - what's the problem? After all, the fact that the thrust levers on a Boeing have moved might not mean that the engines have spooled up - you still need to check the gauges to confirm the engines are responding to the command. One advantage with the Airbus philosophy might be that no-one's hands are on thrust levers unless they are manually controlling the thrust (ie, autothrust is disengaged), or preparing to take over from the autothrust. So the other pilot has more situational awareness.

Try it first perhaps, then comment.

Regards

U