Point taken, Homer, but I still have to stand with the 'luddites' on this. I recall, not too many years ago, doing a route check where we suffered a double FMS failure at around 15,000' on descent. (The aircraft had a history of this problem, but when else would you suffer a *** double FMS failure on descent than on your *** route check????)
I asked the FO to dial in the inbound VOR radial, (for those not familiar with the modern FMS, three pages, including the RAD/NAV page, where you can make approach aid frequency selections manually, remain available on a 'failed' FMS), we both switched our displays to VOR mode (which gives an ‘old fashioned’ CDI presentation) and were quite content to fly the radial until we took a radar marshal before switching to APP mode for the ILS, (which would also have to me manually inserted). He was one of those increasingly rare creatures, an FO with extensive GA experience, and was more than happy with this.
But the checkie, an ex cadet who had gone straight from initial training into widebodies, informed us in horrified tones that "you can't fly an approach without the magenta line" - and proceeded to lean over the centre console and recover my FMS for me, which he succeeded in doing by about 7000'. (Not without causing myself and the FO considerable distraction.)
In my eyes, the check captain was wrong, while in his, I was. Nothing was said in the debrief, but the incident illustrated what many of the old school find concerning. If the toys we've all come to love and rely on fall over, particularly below 10,000’, forget them and FLY THE *** AEROPLANE.
Unfortunately, there seems to be an increasingly large number of pilots in our ranks who can’t do that without the toys.