A320 Thrust

[Flyman35]

after takeoff when LVR CLMB flashes and we put the thrust lever in CLMB detent should we keep our hand on it or until a specific stage comes or should we leave it .also during approach when to put your hand on the thrust lever.?

[Fly3]

I would suggest that you keep your hands on the thrust levers until the flaps are at zero and guard them again when you start to configure for landing.

[MD83FO]

technology is removing us from the controls. so far it been designed so you can put your hands in you pockets and the flight control computers will take care of any speed diversion. any low seed situation or high speed situation will be better handled by the auto thrust or the low speed protection so don't bother. this is the first stage of human exclusion.

[waren9]

Speed control isn't that great on some of the Airbus airframes I fly.

I wouldn't say thats the only reason you guard the levers either. What about in the case of EGPWS or low energy warning, for instance?

[Dream Land]

Agree with MD83FO, no need to guard thrust levers.

[PappyJ]

There are very few times - if any to date - that I disagree with Dreamland, but this is one of them.

Airbus Golden Rule # 1...

Automated aircraft can be flown like any other aircraft, including the use of sidestick, rudder and throttles / thrust levers.

Followed by....

Airbus Golden Rule # 6...

When things don’t go as expected, take over!

I would suggest that you keep your hands on the thrust levers until the flaps are at zero and guard them again when you start to configure for landing. Is, in my humble opinion, a very good suggestion. But not for most of the reasons stated.

Configuration changes. This is a time when a lot of logic changes take place. An effed-up FMGS, FCU, etc, could choose one of these times to put the aircraft/FADEC into a mode that would best resemble "Thrust Idle, Open CLIMB", (example which has been known to happen at least once that I, and Dreamland, are absolutely aware of). There are several other possibilities that can be thought of that could effect both flight path, and thrust control.

Keeping one hand on the stick, and the other on the thrust, until the aircraft is fully stabilized is not a bad idea as it requires your hands to be in the correct place when unexpectedly having to execute Golden Rule number 1.

[thebus]

Interesting post!

During basic flight training I remember being distinctly taught that during any phase of flight where Thrust/Power is fixed one should have their hand off the Thrust levers as pitch is what needs to be varied to control speed.

In the bus, even if the thrust levers are not guarded, full and continued up stick will automatically trigger Alpha Floor. It is arguable that by guarding the thrust levers, a quicker response is available to recover from these situations as opposed to waiting for Alpha Floor to activate.

I would also think that in the unlikely event that your seat unlocked and rolled back during takeoff, the instinctive action would be to grab onto anything, including the thrust levers, to arrest the fall back.

I can see benefits and drawbacks to each method, but personally tend towards not guarding the thrust levers during climb and hands on again at around 5000ft / below MSA during descent.

[Jim Croche]

The view that there's no need to keep the hands on the TL follows the line that the aeroplane will look after you. Dream on!

A guy I know took off recently and hit wake turbulence shortly after takeoff. His "wonderful" A320 went into Alternate Law and stayed there until it went into Direct Law when the gear went down for landing. Reason enough?? Dozens of other good reasons too. Airmanship we used to call it.

[FatFlyer]

Our company requires us to cover controls once rad alt is displayed during approach.

There is a remote possibility of a rad alt one partial failure causing thrust retard to idle (and flare) during approach while still a few hundred feet up so it is essential to be able to disconnect autothrust if it fails in this way.

[PappyJ]

Airmanship we used to call it Is this subject still in the curriculum? Or was has it been removed due to yet another politically insensitive reference of the term "man" in AirMANship? :uhoh: