My USAir and Delta buddies who fly the A320 series both say that it wasn't really designed for hand flying. They say there is no "feel" to the stick, and the fact that there is no trim takes a lot of the fun out of hand flying. They also say Airbus designed it to be operated on autopilot as much as possible, with the cockpit philosophy mainly designed for third world countries whose pilots will most likely be flying the Airbus with not much total flying time/experience.
It may be easier to hand fly than a conventional aircraft, but then again the whole point of hand flying is to maintain piloting skills.... and you can't (and won't ever) convince me that flying an A320 series is improving my piloting skills. Sorry, but not having pitch trim to work with, plus letting go of the stick and the aircraft autotrimming itself for bank/pitch is almost like having the A/P on already.
Old School Pilot!
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Last edited by aa73; 3rd Jul 2012 at 20:31.