Originally Posted by
Dash8widget
Seriously? Maybe I was just lucky then. A couple of times flying one of the RNAV arrivals into PDX, got an early descent clearance. Went to the FMS, hit desend now, had the throttles go to idle but it stayed in VNAV LVL

. Airspeed started bleeding off in a hurry, as I'm frantically reverting to a lower level of automation

. Yes, everything was programmed and set up properly. I've also seen it go into ALT CAP on a descent but just kept right on going - right through the altitude... It WILL do things (or not do things, as the case may be) that it's not supposed to, even when it's set up/programmed properly. You just need to be paying attention, especially during transitions...but that's all just part of the allure

Can happen on any plane. Had it happen on the bus recently, FO pushed for managed decent at the computed decent point. Throttles came back to idle and managed decent was annunciation. The aircraft however did not go down. Had to pull for open decent to stop airspeed loss.