Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

Cut us a break. It is the only part of the airplane we truly understand.

You want to talk about autothrust, be my guest. What does "idle" mean? What does the airplane do in a managed descent?

If you need an intro to Airbus, read the ASI report on the Hamburg wingtip strike. The poor investigators seemed to conclude with "the Germans stated this, the French said that, the book says the other thing and we observed the airplane actually did ..."

After my first crosswind landing at Kennedy that set off earthquake detectors in SFO I no longer used the book crosswind technique and started flying it like a C172, which seems to be working so far.

My hour or two in the C Series sim suggests it flies a lot more naturally to a pilot. In fact, it is the easiest airplane I've ever "flown."