The restriction referred to in the AAIB report was that co-pilots flying the A321 would not be allowed to perform landings until they had sufficient experience on type.
Is this indeed correct? If so, could someone with inside knowledge of the training philosophy at BA give us an explanation as to why it is a good idea. You perform base training to gain landing experience in the real a/c and achieve the final link in gaining the type rating, but you are then not allowed to consolidate that skill for another 6 months, after which you have forgotten the nuances you developed during the base training? Curious.
How does 6 months line flying in LNAV/VNAV & auto-throttle, twiddling knobs and FMC inputs to 'operate' the a/c, help you in becoming competent to fly a stable approach to a manual tail-scrape free flare and touchdown? Does not sound good for confidence building. You pass the base training and are then told you are not yet good enough to do the same with pax on board. Does this apply only to cadets or type conversions from other types? What about DEP's?
The PM activating thrust reversers sounds another BA quirk from yester-year. Was that not an FE function on old oil burners? What if it is a slippery X-wind runway and reverse is giving control difficulties and needs to be modified? If ailerons need to be kept into wind on landing in severe winds it is no problem on an AB. If I needed to do so on a Boeing I briefed it that the PM would ensure the ailerons would be held into wind on touchdown. It seems another quirk where the risk might be greater than the benefit.