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.
You seem to think technology sure is evil , like it or not this is the future of aviation. By the way, it is european not french. And its not Airbuses fault that some of the pilots doent pay attention in training. And you dont monitor the computers. They simply present the information for the pilot in a much more organized way than a mess of gauges. Yes Airbus does put a few limitations on their planes, but really how many pilots are going to push the limits of a airliner with people on board.
And even Boeing seems to think fly-by-wire is the way to go.