Hetfield thanks for those inspiring word of wisdom. I'll add it to my golden rules and shall call it the Hetfield guide to Airbus.
inspiring stuff.
Thanks for the input guys and Gals. This issue is specifically A321 and specifically V2500 engines. I've got thousands of hours left and right seat in the A320 but only fly the A321 once every other month so haven't really got to know her.
I've flown the A320 into some places which have reputations for nasty shear. Wellington NZ namely being one of my regular haunts. Flap 3, G/S mini are fantastic tools. I generally don't manually up the Vapp if I'm expecting Vapp to be close to vmax - 15 ish as to allow for gusts as it would push the target speed closer to Vmax which is undesirable.
Scotty, after some more research they make the v2500 N1 and N2 spin slightly faster to attain the rated thrust increase hence the lag when higher power is needed. I thought approach thrust was meant to overcome the lag but I doesn't SEEM to be that effective.
Tower Wind 320/10 in PERF page. VAPP in fMGC was Vls + 7 (Manually entered) 400-500' shear. FAC speeds were pretty much as per FMGC. Resulting initial shear was Vls - 2 before I disconnected the ATHR. The ATHR was "lazy" for the entire approach. The low level shear was the last straw. If it doesn't respond then , when will it?
I went Vls + 10 yesterday in a gusty 32 knot crosswind. It seemed to do a better job as it didn't feel like we were slipping on the back of the curve so to speak but the ATHR responsiveness still leaves a lot to be desired for very small vertical rate changes.
Jonty, I was skeptical that a 5 degree change in Flap setting resulting in a lower N1 would have the desired effect with the lag. I'll give it a try. Thanks.