I understand Vy "feels slow" for powerful turboprops.
But if it lowers your fuel burn and gets you to your destination faster, why not use that profile?
To answer some of Appleseed's questions:
I don't worry about the pax facing backwards. If I have passengers that are nervous I find they self-select to the forward facing seats. My angle of climb is certainly less than an Airbus.
The book profile for max range descent is to fly the profile that results in continuous flight at Vmmo/Vne with power near idle. I think that profile is a little ridiculous and leaves no room for error. Flying a slightly more conservative, but still aggressive, descent profile changes the fuel burn very little. Overall, I delay my descents as long as possible with two exceptions:
If I'm descending from more than FL280 to near sea level, I need to manage the descent to keep cabin altitude descent rates less than 500 ft/min. Descending to my home airport, pressure management is trivial - the cabin finishes the flight at 7,000 ft.
If I expect significant turbulence, I don't want to be near Vmmo or Vne so I'll start descending earlier. I can keep the speed down in a steep descent with the gear out, but I have found that a steep descent in turbulence makes passengers much more nervous than a steep climb.
And, of course, if I'm flying into a B I don't have any say in the matter at all. ATC starts descending me shortly after takeoff.
