Automation is great and has been paid for and definitely increases SITUATIONAL AWARENESS and contributes to Flight Safety
Not always so, unfortunately. During a simulator session the FMS was made inoperative prior to a VOR/DME approach. The purpose was to give the crew currency in using radio aids to navigation. The captain virtually downed tools and said it was not possible to carry out the instrument approach without the FMS. He was wrong. It was, but he did not know how to fly a straight forward VOR/DME approach including the DME arc. Later the FMS was restored but the IRS was unable to update and cockpit indications revealed the present position was actually 15 miles from the correct geographical position.
Despite this, the captain with his first officer gazing blankly at the nav display, proceeded to enter the VOR holding pattern into the CDU and then flew the holding pattern magenta line using heading select. It never occured to the crew that the actual VOR and the entered information were 15 miles away from each other.
A glance at raw data from the VOR/RMI needles would have shown the tracking error. Neither of the two pilots knew how to interpret the readings from the RMI. They had been accustomed to receiving ATC radar vectors for most of their flying career and relying totally on the magenta line. Their situational awareness did not exist..