Originally Posted by
draglift
On the Boeing I fly we are not allowed to disconnect the autothrottle unless there are technical issues like unreliable airspeed. Previous Boeings I flew were operated with manual throttles for approach and landing. I think this is Boeing's recommendation and not company policy. It would be nice if once established on a descent profile during approach we could disconnect the autothrottle for practice.
Not allowed is not the same as recommended. On the B777 Boeing recommends AT use, but we disconnected frequently just to keep the habit. There are a lot of people out there who have lost faith in themselves, or maybe even skills yes flying raw data.
The interesting conclusion I had to draw was that if you do this every once in a while, you don't really lose a lot of skills. On the contrary, the autothrottle also shows you how stable a speed can be within certain movements of the levers. I actually found it more strange to revert to "autothrottle ON" for landings than "autothrottle OFF" for some bizar reasons.