He is talking about an Amber box..
OK - the reference I found first had a B&W illustration. It showed MAN FLEX surrounded by a box in the FMA, but the box was drawn in no particular color.
And yes, I meant a reminder to move the levers to CL to engage A/THR once in the air. (800 feet or whatever the briefed TO calls for.)
Here's what I find in an A319/A320/A321 technical training manual:
FMA display
COLOURS
Five colors are used:
- GREEN: A/THR and AP/FD active modes.
- CYAN: AP/FD armed mode, A/THR engaged (not active), V/S, FPA, FLX TEMP, MDA, MDH and DH numeric values, selected Mach and speed.
- WHITE: Flight Guidance function engaged, A/THR activated, landing categories, manual thrusts (surrounded by boxes) which are held when A/THR is not active, messages. Mode change and guidance function engagement make a white box appear for ten seconds.
- AMBER: Messages, boxes around certain thrust modes.
- RED: MAN PITCH TRIM ONLY message.
A/THR ZONE (of the FMA)
Here are all the possible displays in the autothrust zone.
Autothrust function information:
- First line in green: SPEED, MACH, THR MCT, THR CLB, THR IDLE, THR LVR.
- First line in green with a flashing amber box: A.FLOOR, TOGA LK.
- First and second lines in white: MAN TOGA, MAN FLXxx ,MAN THR, MAN MCT.
- Third line, flashing white: LVR CLB, LVR MCT. Third line in amber: LVR ASYM.
NOTE: In MAN FLXxx, xx is the value of the selected flexible take-off temperature in degrees Celsius in cyan.
Source:
http://www.avdyne.com/airbus_training/22zAutoflt.pdf p. 142