I was going through an old study guide and read something that I was not aware of with regard to the autothrottle. It may not even be true, but I was hoping to get some feedback here on the forum:
If rejecting the landing below 5’: Manually set GA thrust and pitch to the go around attitude. Once the climb has started, push TO/GA to re-establish GA thrust and flight director commands.
With the autopilot off, the autothrottle goes off at 5’. If rejecting, manually select GA thrust by moving the thrust levers forward and push the TO/GA switch when back above 5’ to reconnect the autothrottle.
Any thoughts on what they mean by "off"? Is this idle or does it just go into a type of HOLD submode where it stays where it was? This is theoretical, but what if you did a manual landing with the autothrottles engaged but never used reverse? Would the A/T attempt to maintain the MCP speed on rollout while you were braking?
I have never left the A/T engaged all the way to touchdown on a manual landing, so I would have never discovered this. I always thought that it was the reversers that disengaged the A/T if left on during a manual landing, but perhaps the autothrottle behavior on an autoland is different than on a manual landing.
It would make sense that the autothrottles would be affected because TOGA is disabled any time you are less than 5' for more than 2 seconds. Maybe that's why TOGA is disabled -- because the autothrottles are off?
Thanks.