I am highly distressed at the course modern aviation (of all forms ) has taken.
Automation...great as it never fails (didn't anyone see "2001, a space odyssey"? Hal, HAL, daisy daisy give me your answer do)
We have shrunk the single most important instrument (airspeed) to a sidebar
We have taken the mental situational awareness away...my brain could, with two VORs , a DME, and an NDB/ADF know exactly where we were all the time.
We are asking olympic athletes to use elevators and escalators and get old and fat. (of the aviation brain that is).
I know how I would design a jetliner...the cockpit would have a giant airspeed indicator and a giant horizon and a giant altimeter, there would be a HUD for airspeed, horizon and altimeter too.
The control system would be Douglas strong...cables, no computer interference and the plane itself would be strong enough to handle me flying the wings off it ONCE to a safe landing.
Of course I would fly it like an old lady to avoid having to use the ''fly the wings off'' saving system.
Now we have a plane...nav instruments and wx radar improvements ...sure...but the Basic instruments of flying are there and the standard scan for any landing would be; airspeed, runway, airspeed runway
instrument conditions would certainly include altitude, horizon and nav.
But we have moved away from FLYING in an effort to make the gadgets happy.
Like bubbers said, autopilot is for when you get bored of hand flying. And if you are performing a maneuver or approach using the autopilot, you better be ready to fly it as well as the autopilot or you shouldn't even try the maneuver or approach.
Even 20 years ago I watched (laughingly) as one pilot I was flying with had a devil of a time HAND FLYING at cruise altitude. He couldn't do it within ATP standards. I finally said, why not descend to an altitude that allows the plane to be a bit more stable. What to do if the autopilot fails?
What to do till the doctor arrives?
Back in the day, a pilot had to fly.