I recall vividly flying an Ansett A320 as the F/O on an NDB approach into Kalgoorlie at night with a ****e-ton of information leaping out at me (from all that crap whizzing around on the PFD and ND) , and choosing to focus on attitude, snap-shot track (that's a bonus instead of heading!), altitude and the ADF needle with the F/D off (the youngish Captain was ready to transmit a mayday on that fact alone, I'm sure).
I'm sure this is not the case, but based on what you've written I would suspect that you didn't know the automation side of your aeroplane properly and hence found it easier to hand fly. I don't see a big difference between that and not being able to hand fly properly and therefore finding it easier to use the autopilot. When you're really on top of an aeroplane you can use the automation to its fullest extent on a dark and stormy night and know exactly what's going on, you can also turn everything off if you need to and also know what's going on. I don't know the A320 but surely you can fly an NDB on the A/P in HDG and VS without becoming a one armed paper hangar?
The newest FOs I fly with are very quick to turn off the automation on an approach. It's not because they are great at hand flying though, it's because they don't have a handle on the automatics and get scared into turning them off. As they get better at it they are able to manage the automatics better and aren't forced to revert to single pilot GA twin mode. I have actually heard the words "this is too hard" muttered under the breath one time just prior to <click click> hand fly time!
Big mitigating factor, it is an old autopilot that doesn't have niceties such as being able to select a defined VS or do a nice localiser intercept at much more than 180 knots. I fully understand that to people new to the aeroplane the A/P actually significantly increases your workload times. But as you come to learn to use the A/P you do get to the point where it decreases your workload. So although I think the new FO who turns off the automatics when he can't get them to do what he wants is doing the right thing for the situation, I also think it is a symptom of not knowing the aeroplane well enough.
Originally Posted by Homer Simpsons Lovechild
So you're downwind at 4000', gin clear day, number 1 in no traffic and the runway is firmly in sight to both of you. A/P, A/T and F/D's off.
Can someone explain what all this furious knob twiddling is that's required of the PNF , apart from maybe wazzing the heading bug to point in roughly the right direction?
Yep, you've described a situation where the PNFs workload is largely unaffected, well done. Maybe we're referring to other times when you are either flying a SID or flying a STAR that doesn't give you the luxury of a visual approach from 4000' on downwind.