Airplane crazy - the UA recovery can be done with or without AP and force trim but not without looking at the instruments.
The whole process of learning to instrument fly is about building an effective scan, being logical in correcting errors and most of all believing your instruments.
You do have sensations of descent, roll, pitch yaw etc but when you are in cloud, the feedback loop to confirm these sensations - your visual picture of the outside world - is missing and must be replaced by the use of the instruments.
Robbiee - the whole point of the exercise is to highlight that even if you are not firing on all cylinders when you set off to scud-run - you can recover the IIMC nightmare if you have been trained to and then use the correct techniques. I have used the same process for deliberate entry into IMC and IIMC in some stressful SAR scenarios - it works. And it works in everything from an unstabilised Gazelle through to a 139.
You don't have to be an IFR rated pilot to learn the basics of instrument flight - it could save your life one day.
212man - yes, EGDR rw11
- I completely agree with your comment about poor understanding of AP modes, whether it be SAS vs ATT or upper FD modes