To answear your question, many of us do handfly the 747 as much as practical, I'm certainly one of those. The aircraft is very nice to handle, and as long as you stay ahead of her there is no danger there.
I also fly SEP IFR without autopilot, and can confirm that it is much easier to handfly the B747 IFR, but in either case the safe outcome is down to maintaining a solid scan and staying ahead of the aircraft at all times.
In terms of PC simming and simulators, these are powerful tools to practise instrument scan, and the latter to practise normal and non-normal procedures and CRM, but these are "computer games" and will never be exactly like the real thing, just for that matter.
Automation on Airliners is a very good thing, one must understand how it works and stay on the ball and stay ahead of the aircraft regardless. Autolands are great, but have their limits, and guess who can operate to higher wind limits, autopilot or a human pilot?
Enjoy your flying
CI 4x9
Last edited by CI 9999; 14th Oct 2009 at 12:13.