2 and 70, you have my sympathies - you are being let down by a very poorly designed aircraft system (the autothrottle system), and also by a very poor set of manuals (from the aircraft manufacturer).
ManaAda-something is wrong to suggest flying a manual descent with A/T in ARM, for the reasons given above. You must not do this, because the automatic application of thrust with ALT ACQ will destabilise the hand-flown level-off.
Most training pilots will advocate 'keep it simple, stupid', and so I offer my advice to all of us unfortunate enough to fly this shoddily-designed aircraft.
If you wish to fly manually, with FD's on either or both sides ON or OFF, then you should de-select the Autothrottle. Do not de-select speed mode only, as this gives rise to the problems mentioned above.
Alpha protection is there do to a very specific job, and the Boeing version of the system is very much simpler than certain well-designed manufacturer's equivalents.
Fact: people's lives have been saved by alpha protection (two friends of mine amongst them).
Fact: if you feel you should have the alpha protection available at all times in a 737, then you should never fly the aircraft manually. There just isn't a satisfactory way of getting around this.
[This message has been edited by Portly (edited 07 September 2000).]