Thanks Uplinker, you're 100% correct: I will refrain from commenting until I fly it one day. For all I know, I may change my mind.
Regarding my terms, forgive me -all I know is Boeing and McD/D. I have been using throttles, control yokes, and power settings for years now. I guess I am old school... "Autothrust" just does not cut it for me. I'm a firm believer in visual cues, and I not only want to see N1/EPR gauges move, I want to see the throttles move along with them! It reinforces what the aircraft is doing, and I believe this was a huge contributing factor in the crash of AF447 - the lack of visual cues as to what the other pilot was doing. Apparently I'm not the only one.
I'm also an old school type of flier. I hand fly my 75/76 usually up to FL180, and on descent hand fly from 10,000ft to landing. And when I mean hand fly, I mean switching off A/P, A/T, and sometimes the F/D if it's a nice day. Keeps my skills sharp, and maybe, just maybe, would be my saving grace should everything quit on some dark night over the Atlantic. From what I've been told, the Airbus is not a friend of "hand flying."
As of right now, under AA's new proposed TA - if it passes - the A319 will pay the worst out of all US Airbus operators. So if I don't bid onto it, most likely due to the crappy pay!
Last edited by aa73; 29th Jun 2012 at 16:22.