But the question is-put your hand on your heart and tell me-are you up to this particular task day in, day out, not just on the nice sunny days but also at the end of a long night slog. The answer is -obviously not.
No one is advocating hours of hand flying to keep in practice. Some years ago when flying for a German 737 operator, I kept my hand in by hand flying SIDS and STARS with FD off - in other words where Rnav wasn't necessary for the task. It was merely a case of watching VOR/ADF needles doing their job to indicate crossing fixes. It was basic instrument flying that single pilot IFR pilots do as routine flying tasks.
A few weeks later an invitation to tea and bikkies arrived from the chief pilot of the airline. A pleasant kindly chap he asked me to desist from hand flying unless necessary, because the first officers of his airline were not trained to monitor raw data navigation aid flying - only automatics.
Clearly hands on flying is inappropriate at certain times - maybe because of weather or a complex terminal area. But here we had relatively straight forward departure and arrival procedures which obviously scared the automation bred first officers who lacked basic instrument flying skills.
And these 500 hour wonders were second in command of 150 passenger airliners. Aft of the flight deck door, the cabin crew and passengers would have been totally convinced that the two blokes up front were two highly experienced pilots able to save their lives from any imaginable emergency. Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise..