Good post Chris. I was only on the fleet for 3 years until 91 (?) so won't comment other than to say that I didn't know BA had cut out the dedicated Route Check Captain position. That was really the Chief Pilot's independent "quality control" over both his Technical and Training subordinates. I am pretty unhappy with the idea that manual thrust is only done in the sim., since for exactly the handling issues you mention the occasions when it may be necessary are already generating high workload/stress levels.