Is it really true that a pilot can legally log instrument flying time while eating his lunch and chatting up the hostie on the flight deck and watching the automatic pilot do it's thing?
In the old days pilots were only permitted to log instrument flying time if they actually flew the aircraft in IMC as against "monitoring" an autopilot. There would seem to be no point in logging hours watching an autopilot as there is no manipulative skills required for that task. It's rather like congratulating the pilot on his superb skill on the ILS and landing when it was an autoland