Originally Posted by
Centaurus
Suggest refer to original post as above. Thread drift on to QF bashing seems to have got more attention than the hard landing at Melbourne..
While there are enlightened operators who encourage their crews to keep their hand in by switching off technically non-essential automatics for the task in hand, they are probably in the minority. Conversely there are those operators who actively discourage any sort of hand flying and are known to impose severe penalties for those who genuinely would like to keep up manual flying skills. It seems to be a culture thing.
In the case of the incident involving the hard landing by the A330 at Melbourne - the subject of the first post - it seems evident that the pilot left the auto throttles to do their own thing while he (or "they" the political correctness term beloved by ATSB but not by overseas authorities) thrashed around his control stick to such an great extent that he assaulted the runway with the A330. The A330 lost the battle with the runway as evidenced by the landing gear severe damage.
I would have thought it would be common sense for a pilot when switching to manual flying on final approach to simultaneously turn off the auto-throttle so he is completely in the loop so to speak, rather than half-automatics and half manual flying.
Maybe that is inadvisable in the Airbus series because of various PFM inputs by computers that are in place to minimise pilot incompetency?
Not having flown an Airbus I wouldn't have a clue. I do know that Boeing advise (for example) in their 737 FTCM: " To simplify thrust setting procedures, autothrottle use is recommended during takeoff and climb in either automatic or manual flight. During all other phases of flight, autothrottle use is recommended only when the autopilot is engaged."
That said, it is common practice by some airline pilots to conveniently disregard that Boeing advice and leave the autothrottle engaged (when Boeing advise it should be switched off) because of lack of confidence in their own ability to handle the aircraft manually with the autothrottle switched off.
Modern boeings (ie not the 737 in any variant) recommend autothrottle use during manual flight, look at that 777 pranged in dubai...
The a330 flies very nicely with manual thrust and I practice it regularly. Its good to also practice and fly with it in on approach as it is a little different and better at some things like when I'm tired as all ****. Flying a mix of domestic and long haul on it allows me the luxury of picking and choosing good opportunities for this.
I've also recent experience where that is certainly not the case.