hello every one,
manual flight is just that. ... manual, autopilot disengaged, autothrottle off, flightdirector on/off is your choice. a good trick is to let the autothrottle stabilise on the targetspeed selected on the speedbug so you have already found the average thrustleversettings before selecting a/t off. i find it very useful to fly fuelflows as this is a good representation of the required thrust: fuelflow=thrust x tsfc.
tsfc=thrust specific fuel consumption expressed in kg/hour/kgf or lb/hr/lbf.
as for protections, you have your pilot non flying doing the monitoring of your flying abilities & hopefully he will speak up if you scew it up & even better take action if you really do not heed his advice( case of first officer =pnf).