Not only people cannot hand-fly an airbus. Now they even cannot do the pilot monitoring job, if the Pilot flying is flying manually.
It is true. I also fly 4 out of 5 approaches manually and some guys cannot cope with setting basic headings and altitudes.
I think these days average airbus guys are on the verge of being overloaded even if the automation is on and on a nice day.
Many guys hide the inability to fly an aircraft behind the words of how safe they are, because they are using automation. But when something goes wrong, they are trying to use automation to fix it. And that is often even more difficult than just take over manually. Yes, guys are even hopeless to fly the automation.
By flying the automation I mean when you have to give it some inputs, because the situation changed. If the automation works correctly you could even sit in a passenger seat and the flight would be a success.
If you make training too easy for people, it eventually becomes difficult for them. If you make it difficult, it becomes easy.
I find handflying the airbus wth no FDs, Autothrust and no bird (what a heresy! we are all going to die!) very easy, low task and relaxing. No emergency at all.
I feel sorry for guys, who consider it an emergency. I think they should have been accountants instead.
By the way the AF447 was not in deep stall. It would have been enough just to release the sidestick and everybody would have been alive.
Airlines are a sad, sad place. Thank God for pprune, because at least here I can communicate with guys, who also like flying. I guess in my airline I am the only one.