Dia Farr - Very good info in your post--thanks for being one of those who keeping this thread worth reading. Rather good to see some wheat amonst the chaff. Awblain and Lonewolf also adding good ASW/SAR bits in as well.
Ploughman, I also fly the 777 and you made a point that I think most, if not all of us have missed--and that is problems with the MCP. How many times have we either done it ourselves or seen it happen when the altitude is spun incorrectly or the heading knob (or vice versa) is spun when it was meant to set a new altitude.
These errors are of course normally quickly caught and so no harm no foul...but add in hypoxia and and now we are talking about how this little bit of MCP confusion could lead to bigger problems.
My carrier still keeps the alt selector in auto unless flying a NPA but I can see why yours has changed the procedure.
One little knob, one little twist, one bit of confusion growing ever larger due to hypoxia and suddenly the MCP could be THE major player.
Glad to see the thread this morning with some good info being posted.