Can you 'spot' how an aircraft is being flown?

[cuddieheadrigg]

Just a random question. Can a pilot look up and 'know' if an airliner is being flown manually or on autopilot say when it's coming in to land?

Second: and I stand ready to duck from the flack here: Do Airbus aircraft 'Really' look different in the air compared to Boeings and other makes of a similar size?

I know this is probably total rubbish, but from all I have seen, the best way I could describe an Airbus in the air (on approach and landing) is like a 'twitchy racing car' - IE it seems to make any in flight adjustments 'quickly and sharply' and touch down and roll out'as if on rails' compared to say a 737 which looks a little more like a soft springed limo, which seems more 'relaxed' in the air (not obviously lolling about but everything seems a little smoother)

So.. am I talking rubbish?:8

[NudgingSteel]

That's an interesting question! I'm not a pilot, but I do know there are differences in the control systems between the A320 family and the 737 family....but it's way too technical for me to understand, you'll have to wait for a pilot response!
The way you can often tell is if you're listening to the tower frequency: very often, as the pilot is reading back their landing clearance, you can hear the autopilot disconnect horn in the background. Don't often see much change in the behaviour of the aircraft, though.
Plus, hand-flown landings are usually a bit gentler than autolands.

[v1.]

simply put, no you can't tell if its being flown manually or not.

[Wirbelsturm]

In almost all landings, apart from those in thick fog, CAT III autolands, the autopilot will be disconnected once adequate visual references have been obtained.

Given that the autopilot uses the same flight control actuation as the manual flight controls it's almost impossible to tell if the aircraft is being manually flown.

Unless you mess the approach up totally!