PTH;
I never cared for the flight director
Interesting. I never really liked the flight director either. Not that they weren't good but I preferred to "look through" the FD to the raw data on the ADI/PFD etc to make my own adjustments when hand-flying. Sometimes the FD would lead what I was flying and sometimes it would lag, (always in short-term situations, bear in mind); the key is not in slavish adherence to what the FD was commanding but flying the airplane first. The two always caught up with one another! The other method was to simply turn the FD off which is what Airbus recommends if you're not going to "follow the FD". I expect to be taken to task by some for espousing the notion of "ignoring the FD" but that's not what the "cognition" was - it was permitting the FD to "ride on top of awareness while looking behind it to the raw data" at what the airplane was actually doing, maintaining a keen SA and flying the machine. It can't be taught nor should it be; it comes from time in.