Landing technique with AT engaged
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The manual isn't clear, but in a number of locations, it seems to imply that landing with the autothrottle engaged is possible and that the plane will enter a retard state 50 feet above the ground.
Unfortunately, the tutorial in the manual indicates a landing without AP and without AT, so I can't check there.
In my experience, though, every time I try to land with AT on, with IAS set to Vref + 5, and then even though I retard the throttles right before landing (during flare), the throttles don't retard and I find the plane keeping its thrust high enough that I don't settle and instead either bounce or start to climb again after I touch the ground.
Is there something I need to do to ensure that the AT responds to a manual throttle cut right before landing? Should I not be landing with AT engaged?
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Either use A/P and autothrottle or no A/P and no autothrottle.
Also keep in mind that FADEC will maintain flight idle while airborne and reduce to ground idle on touchdown.
The FCOM says:
If the autothrottle is engaged for a manual landing, it will go into the retard mode below 50 ft. It will not control speed. Thus the desired speed may not be achieved. It is recommended that the autothrottle is not used for manual landings. -
Tldr; switch off AP and A/T "unless" you are "autolanding." Be sure that it's armed and then activates correctly... including "flare."
Autoland will roll you out and do everything down to around 80 kias... at which point you must take over and disconnect everything.
Go Around procedure is bit more complex but is explained in the manual.
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Thank you both. Sounds a lot easier to manually land without the AP or AT.
One of my landing attempts was with an auto land, but I tried to retard the throttles right before touchdown anyway, as I do on the A320, so that might have been a technique problem.