Originally Posted by captain_drew
As a career long commuter, I probably logged more time on the jumpseat than most posters here have PIC time <g>. It is a French piece of crap.
It seriously worries me when the crew, who have been through all the sterling training, keeps scratching their heads and asking/saying: “What’s that noise? . . . Why is it doing that?. . How come I can’t make it do this?. . ”
Pilots are supposed to FLY. . NOT be an “IT” .. . monitoring the damn computers. . Airbus is ‘pretend’ flying (an expensive GameBoy) .. because your hand is NOT physically connected to any control surfaces. . and you can’t make the machine ‘do’ everything you would like it to do (en extremis) .. and often you are wondering WHAT the hell it IS doing . .and why.
I'll take that as a no. I've flown both the NG's and 320's and have said your above statements at one time or another for each. But I have never had a problem eventually getting them to do what I wanted. Just click off the autopilot and hand fly it. Yes, you can handfly the Airbus.
And as for your comment about not being physically connected to any control surfaces, do you feel the same about the 777? It is all fly by wire as well, right? What about the DC10? Are you physically "connected" to the control surfaces or are you connected to a pcu?
Maybe it's just that you just don't trust the computers. Do you trust the FMS or GPS? How about the stall computer? How about the IRS or the ADIRU? Maybe it's just that you "prefer" American made cars and airplanes.
Like somebody said before, anybody who hates a modern Airbus has probably never flown one.