Somewhat ironic that about 75% of this thread would get you demoted if you tried it on today. Imagine 787 captain turning off the autopilot at FL420 just to test out his scan rate! The safety department would go mental. The regulator would be calling for blood. Emails galore with the AIPs/CAO/CARs/Ops Manuals cut and pasted into them pointing out the myriad of laws broken....
In reality what needs to happen is the whole concept of Sim needs to be reinvented, and moved away from the 1960s mentality of testing the same stuff annually and into a real training environment. That however would require the regulator to move away from their box ticking bureaucratic mindset.