Hand fly more or .....Autos more..............or something else?
I wonder why we're still rehashing these same old issues? For the n'th time, it is time to put egos/machoism to one side and accept the hard fact that todays air transport operational environment (RNP/RVSM/MNPS etc etc, you name it, and not to forget Big Brother FDAP-aka- tea and biscuits in the Chief Pilot's office) is predicated on automation.
Engineers have done a fantastic job with todays machines, which is why we are at such historical lows in accident rates (the famous "10 to the minus 9"). Our job now as pilots is to understand and apply to the fullest extent the benefits of automation. A luddite mentality will get us nowhere, and I speak as one who grew up in military flying where manual flying was the order of the day, be it at night doing 500 knots at low level over the sea , or at Mach 2 at 50,000 ft. We thought nothing of it, because that was the way it was.
You want to practice manual flying now? Your company should have you doing it on recurrent sim training (raw data approaches; repeated if necessary till proficient to acceptable standards; Can't hack it in the sim? then maybe time to retire, or go down to the local flying club and rent some time on a C172 or better still, a Pitts Special).
But to subject your paying customers to extended periods of maybe not-quite-up-to-par manual flying practice in the typical airspace that we operate in these days while at the same time perhaps overloading the PM and degrading his monitoring activities? I don't think so somehow.
I have said it many times before- if you or your family were riding down the back, what would you want the guys up front to be doing? I would suggest you would be looking for the smoothest, safest ride possible, not some chap trying to prove he is still up to the" manual fly at all cost"job; ( it would be great if we could always own up to the old adage-"the older I get, the better I was".). We often criticise the youngsters coming into the profession, but I have found that they generally do a pretty good job, given their inexperience; it all depends on standard of training received. As for we old timers, I always tell them that we need watching as well!
Automation will generally guarantee to perform as advertised (if properly instructed and monitored by our good selves) 100% of the time; Unfortunately we humans cannot provide any such guarantee.