Originally Posted by
dundem
Landing wings level may be technique and I won't argue with it, but the automation will land the aircraft with no/little crab with the wing down if an auto-land is performed.
From the A330 manual:
ALIGN SUBMODE
Align is a sub-mode of LAND that lines up the aircraft's axis with the ILS course at approximately 45 feet. Align sub-mode is not displayed to the crew.
Note: Align sub-mode is often known as "decrab" function.
If the aircraft aligned the yaw axis with the localizer at 45' and did not put a wing down I'm not sure how it would maintain centerline with a cross-wind. I have routinely touched down with a wing into the wing. There's even a call on all the Airbii that I've flown that is to be made by the PM/PNF if the bank angle exceeds 7 degrees. Additionally, the geometry limits for each type are published by Airbus an FYI (I guess) so that pilots know how much wing down they can use without scraping a wingtip or engine cowling.
The A300 doesn't maintain centerline during and autoland. To say it was an eye opener landing about 30 feet from the centerline on my first autoland is an understatement. You put runway heading vice localizer course in the heading window. It doesn't track localizer until after touchdown to get back on the centerline.