Seagull. You are very well versed in the differentiation on the comparison between airbus and boeing. One could almost deduce that you are a current operator on. The Airbus platform! I have heard that the Airbus automation is quite a bit more "automated" LO L than boeing's ideology. Just for curiosity's sake; (do you personally have any experience with small to medium size boeing's)?
The smallest jet I have been trained and have flown is a B727, the largest is the 747. I did fly a Lear, but it was Calspan's for upset recovery training. I have flown several Douglas/MD products. I have never been trained or flown any Airbus products, but am somewhat familiar with FBW and the degree of automation.
Airbus is not much more automated than Boeing. They incorporate more "hard" limits to prevent pilots from losing control of the aircraft than Boeing does -- the latter against the recommendations of the entire Industry. Actually, Boeing's Safety Engineers said that Boeing was going to incorporate Airbus style limits in future designs. I do not know if they followed through, though.
In terms of automation, it can be summed up in a fairly basic way:
Boeing: Alert light comes on, you pull out a checklist and follow it to address the problem;
Airbus: Alert light comes on, ECAM displays checklist items to accomplish to address the problem, the system is aware as each item is accomplished and lets the crew know if something is missed;
MD11: Alert light comes on. System knows what needs to be accomplished, and the auto controller just performs the items. Crew is alerted that the items have been accomplished and the outcome of that, plus any consequences of the failure.
5-6000 fpm at FL? Holy crotch rocket batman! LOL! That's very impressive for a large boeing!)?
Not really, especially for a twin. Twin's are way over powered (compared to tri's or quads) with both engines running, as they need to meet min performance specs with the loss of half of their power, as opposed to just a quarter or third. Also, any of the jets will climb pretty well when light with all the engines running.