Air carrier captain reported taking off with a deferred item resulting in the autothrottle arm switc...

Narrative:

Maintenance release form noted throttles failed to fully advance on takeoff by a previous crew. Maintenance believed it was due to worn servo gears that were not in stock; so write up was deferred with autothrottle switch off. The maintenance release form gave no direction to the flight crew. I knew from previous experience and similar write ups that we should look up our climb EPR settings. I thought of it; but I failed to mention it to the first officer; nor did I write it down; as I often do to avoid forgetting or becoming distracted.we knew our takeoff power setting; but at the initial power reduction we both realized we did not know what EPR setting we should use for climb. This caused distraction during the climb phase. We initially simply set less EPR that still gave good climb performance. Then we referenced the appropriate climb performance charts in the FM. Later; I read in the FM about inoperative tmc; which I determined was essentially our situation due to autothrottle arm switch being in off position.that discussion reminded us to also know our missed approach EPR. The first officer said he had not experienced such a situation before. I told him I have and I shared some of that with him.both of us have flown very little due to covid-19. I have flown only less than five hours plus landings requal in the sim in the last 90 days.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reported taking off with a deferred item resulting in the autothrottle arm switch to be in the 'OFF' position. The deferral requires the crew to look up the EPR climb settings before takeoff; which they failed to do.

Narrative: Maintenance release form noted throttles failed to fully advance on takeoff by a previous crew. Maintenance believed it was due to worn servo gears that were not in stock; so write up was deferred with autothrottle switch off. The maintenance release form gave no direction to the flight crew. I knew from previous experience and similar write ups that we should look up our climb EPR settings. I thought of it; but I failed to mention it to the FO; nor did I write it down; as I often do to avoid forgetting or becoming distracted.We knew our takeoff power setting; but at the initial power reduction we both realized we did not know what EPR setting we should use for climb. This caused distraction during the climb phase. We initially simply set less EPR that still gave good climb performance. Then we referenced the appropriate climb performance charts in the FM. Later; I read in the FM about inoperative TMC; which I determined was essentially our situation due to autothrottle arm switch being in OFF position.That discussion reminded us to also know our missed approach EPR. The FO said he had not experienced such a situation before. I told him I have and I shared some of that with him.Both of us have flown very little due to COVID-19. I have flown only less than five hours plus landings requal in the sim in the last 90 days.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1750367
Time
Date	202007
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Throttle/Power Lever
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 3.9 Flight Crew Total 565.18 Flight Crew Type 565.18
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural MEL Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Air carrier captain reported taking off with a deferred item resulting in the autothrottle arm switch to be in the 'off' position. The deferral requires the crew to look up the EPR climb settings before takeoff; which they failed to do.