Abagnale, replying to your post #19, once I was enroute on a long leg, my instructor would allow me to put her on autopilot for a short period while I refreshed my memory from my plates in respect of the next leg/approach/landing.
Australia CAO 40.1.0 section 10.9 allows me to log such time as instrument flight time as long as I manipulate the autopilot while under the hood.