Not a flame--what did you do at XYZ that you liked that you think would be a good or better idea here?
Albie, we hand-flew more. With the autothrottles off. Yes, on DC-10's and MD-11's.
At my previous employer I never turned the autopilot off without turning off the AT's. Why? Why not? I can't think of a reason not to, other than laziness. They're a cat C deferral for Christ's sake. Who's gonna fly when they're MEL'd?
Fast-forward to FDX: in ~600 hours right seat in the MD10/11 here I have never seen anybody so much as click them off in the flare - we're told to "override them" (how's that working out?). And so I don't do it either, unless it's a crosswind landing.
Suppose the captain of your smoker said, "Albie, it's a nice VFR day, so why don't you fly a visual approach and I'll run your throttles for you. Just tell me what airspeed you want to fly and I'll adjust." Would that make you a better pilot or a worse?
Fedex needs to face facts - our skills are atrophying out on the line. And I don't know why, other than communal laziness....