Originally Posted by
BackonTheBus
Speaking from a practical standpoint. Do companies prohibit using open climb/descent outside of needing to meet a constraint. In other words, if Joe Q pilot wants to use open climb or descent on EVERY SID/STAR, do companies generally prohibit this? I'm asking because as I like to describe it to my students. Open climb/descent is a "dumb" way to climb/descent. Dumb, as in [open descent] the airplane goes, Thrust idle, pitch for speed.
Nothing is “dumb”, nothing is “smart”. The word You need to consider is “appropriate”. Golden Rule N^2: use the appropriate level of automation at all times.
Managed Modes are generally speaking appropriate in the vast majority of situation -But- some situations do require selected modes or a combination of managed/selected such as short term intervention to disregard an Alt or Speed constraint, descent profile management when expecting shortcuts/vectors, better descent profile optimization for non DPO equipped airplanes and so on. Use all the resources the airplane has built in, and get the maximum benefit.