Originally Posted by C-Star
it's SOP to use the the ATHR at all times, only occasionally we switch it off for training
I fly the A320 for one of those few companies where the training department understands that it's extremely important to keep the manual flight skills up to level. In my company manual flight (A/P, F/D and A/THR) is not only permitted, but trained from the beginning and encouraged whenever the situation permits it!
In my company it's done like this: Starting in the type-rating sim sessions the F/O's in training are learned to fly the Airbus manually (A/P, F/D & A/THR off) on many occasions whenever the exercise permits it. (And, for training, having one engine out is NOT a good reason to keep the A/P, F/D or A/THR) on. ) Then, during base training they'll fly a few touch and go's, again without any automatics. Later on, during the initial line training, they will be asked to fly manual raw data approaches, whenever the conditions permit it. Believe me, once they're fully released on line they'll handfly the A320 pretty well, or ... they won't be released on line.
Most of the time, I don't have to suggest my F/O's to turn the automatics off. they will have asked me before if they can. More often it happens, especially with the newly released kids, that I have to suggest them that it would be wise to fly with the automatics on when the metar warns us about low clouds and moderate visibility or when flying into a busy airport we are not familiar with! It's not that they are not smart enough to know that, it's just that they were so used to raw date flying during their training, that using the automatics for approach has become the exception, rather then the rule.
I'll admit that sometimes those new F/O's are not so great in using the automatics. For instance, the first time they have to intercept a G/S from above with the A/P, they will often have a problem. Not amazing, they've trained it once in the sim and then they were expecting it! So confronted to this situation these guys (and girls) will disconnect the A/P when it captures the initial approach alt before the G/S iso using the Airbus procedure for this. (dialling the altitude up and using V/S to get to the G/S.) Oh well, manually intercepting the slope and then re-engaging the A/P gets the job done just as well and it gives me something to talk about during a friendly post-flight debrief.
To get back to A/THR: I very, very, seldom use A/THR when flying manually. The same is true for all pilots in my company. I find that with the practise we have, all of us do a great job at using manual thrust and find that we can all do a better better job then the a/thr systems, especially in gusty and windy conditions. I tried landing a couple of times with A/THR in stormy conditions earlier in my A320 career and will now always use manual thrust in such conditions! (Just like all my colleagues and the training department agrees)
Conclusion: There's nothing special about using manual thrust on the Airbus. You are getting rusty!!
Use every opportunity you get to practise! I'd invite you over to join our company to fly tourists down to the Greek isles during the summer season and share our experience. Unfortunately, that's not within my powers!
Good luck!