Originally Posted by
detpilot
Disagree. Hand flying is a skill that atrophies. The majority of us who handfly a lot spent years hand flying during our formative years as well, yet still understand the need to keep that skill fresh. And, if hand flying is preventing you from thinking about your runway exit or the coffee on ops, then perhaps you need more practice to get back to when it felt like second nature.
There is a noticeable difference in smoothness, SA, landing ability, and confidence between the Captains I fly with who handfly often, and those who never do.
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You've got that right. Get a guy that has been on the plane for a while and just throws the AP on and never turns off the autothrust and watch them try to hand fly an ILS without the FD and autothrust. It gets ugly quick, as those skills, particularly the scan and feel for the plane (yes, even the 320 has a feel) atrophy quite fast.