FANS, very good point and one too which I alluded to in earlier posts. Sorry JOHN SMITH, Post 137, can't agree."Two clicks and you have COMPLETE control in the same way as you would in any other aeroplane ". Nope. Two clicks and your side stick is still connected to FCC's that continue to talk to each other and protect you from any attempt at becoming a candidate for the Red Arrows. "Two clicks" and the thrust selectors (us babyboomers are used to "throttles") will give you whatever detent they are in with lots of protection. I don't think that is like any other aeroplane.
I flew thousands of hours on the 73/75/76 and if you disconnect autothrottle and autothrust and pull the control column fully back, THAT will be like ANY other aeroplane (except Airbus) and you will find yourself in the deepest poo imaginable.
The TC Skipper still looks to me like he reverted to type and even admits that he knew that he was supposed to be doing something with his thumb. All a bit too much wasn't it ? Airbus (?) sinch eh ? Click click, thrust selectors to that lovely , full forward detent(TOGA), everything taken care of. (Boeing, firewall the thrust levers after disconnecting autothrust and you are on your way to the best bar-b-q in town !
My contention is that years of protected flying on Airbus meant that our hapless TC Captain was still cuddled by a comfort zone that surrounds the new breeds of Airbus pilots which made him underperform with a handful of demanding aeroplane.