9 hours ago, RTK1972 said:

Not sure what you said about Lufthansa. They usually fly A-Thrst on.

No they don't. Blackbox711 and CaptA320 (who also is a company instructor) both work, or in case of Blackbox711 worked, for Lufthansa, and they both said, and practice it in their simming, that it's AP and AT off on approach.

Edited January 4Jan 4 by Farlis

On 1/4/2026 at 1:59 PM, Farlis said:

No they don't. Blackbox711 and CaptA320 (who also is a company instructor) both work, or in case of Blackbox711 worked, for Lufthansa, and they both said, and practice it in their simming, that it's AP and AT off on approach.

There is indeed a lot of variation among operators. The company which I'm most familiar with leaves it to pilot discretion.

It's really not that scary to hand fly airliners. 😉 They are the easiest things to fly, from a stick and rudder standpoint, that have ever been built. 

On 1/3/2026 at 4:58 PM, vonduck said:

I wonder why? Not having flown the real thing, i would have thought that the less work or things to focus on in the landing phase would be better? Perhaps not! I wonder then if it makes for better piloting skills?

I know at least one (now defunct) real-world cargo carrier that had SOP's that required disconnecting the autothrottle on approach.

I think it stems from what the others have said about having full(er) control over pitch oscillations from throttle changes.

Another factor was that some older autothrottle/engine couplings were not exactly fast-reacting (DC-10, for example) and that line of thinking may still carry some validity today as even modern a/t's are not perfect.

For me personally, in the sim, I prefer to have a/t OFF because I feel far more comfortable having the throttles under my control so that I can fine-tune my descent rate.   If I have a/t on, I feel naked so-to-speak, in that an increase or decrease in thrust could change my descent rate, and _I_ want to be in control of that.   

Maybe if I didn't know the aircraft well, I would think differently, and might want a/t on, because as you say, it would be one less thing to worry myself with.  But if it's a plane / flight model I know well, I prefer full control.

V1 said he does it every now and then to keep his skills sharp in case AT fails.

I'm not a airbus type rated pilot but speaking to few friends of mine who are type rated on A320, On airbus it is very rare that they have to disconnect A/T. In fact even when manually flying their company SOP states that must keep the A/T on. However depending on circumstances - the pilot flying may decide to disconnect A/T and control speed manually, in conditions like windshear, gusty conditions. Etc. Sometimes to retain their skills and depending on workload/weather/SOP permitting, PF can disconnect A/T for purposes of practice - something which they practice a lot during their regular sim intervals. 

But it is down to each operator and their SOPs - some are very strict while others are quite relaxed. 

Edited January 8Jan 8 by CAP1234

18 hours ago, Mace said:

For me personally, in the sim, I prefer to have a/t OFF because I feel far more comfortable having the throttles under my control so that I can fine-tune my descent rate.   If I have a/t on, I feel naked so-to-speak, in that an increase or decrease in thrust could change my descent rate, and _I_ want to be in control of that. 

This would just be a weird kind of reasoning on an Airbus, since even if flying manual with A/T active, you are in full control of descent rate. Want to go down a bit faster, pitch down a bit, A/T will reduce thrust to compensate. And vice versa.

My operator allows manual flight with and without A/T. Pilot's discretion. I enjoy having it on, but I come from nearly a decade on a non-autothrust aircraft. So for me it is quite relaxing and creates extra spare capacity in a small way.

The distance from CLB detent to idle is larger than when you use manual thrust, with manual thrust on ther other side the levers are somewhere around the middle between idle and CLB. Therefore you can retard the levers quicker, meaning you will float a bit less, meaning your landing distance is a bit shorter. It's not really significant in most situations, but it's another possible reason to use manual thrust on an Airbus.

Personally in the sim it gives me at least feeling of having more control / precision over my landings when I fly with manual thrust, but I'm quite sure it's just a matter of being used to one or the other. And from a technical standpoint the Airbus is clearly designed for the pilot to not touch the throttle during flight, so A/THR on would be the "correct" way to fly an Airbus.

Edited January 8Jan 8 by Fiorentoni