Check Airman and Pakehaboy
The only point you both are harping on is pilots calling without checking and that is as wrong as can get. It is not a call you read it, Check airman you are new to the bus and yet you are assigning the manufacturer recommendations, the evidence of accidents and opinions of experienced pilots to dust bin just because you are unnecessarily uncomfortable with some thing that is routinely done by thousands of pilots across the globe. If pilot can call FMA mechanically without actually reading it then this pilot will never check it doing silently. In the first case there is chance of other guy noticing the error but when done silently the other guy is not even in the loop. And a neophyte saying airbus procedure goes against airbus philosophy I don't find anything more ridiculous than that. You are not immune to committing mistake made by other experienced pilots. Flight control check you are supposed to check full up aileron with spoilers but since spoilers are not called the pilots failed to notice that spoilers were not moving and that caused the incident in Luft Hansa where maintenance had cross connected the wires and captains side stick banked the aircraft to opposite side. The co-pilot landed the plane.