Safetypee, I agree, and I would go further and say that without hands-on manual flying, one's instrument scan WILL degrade and the chance of disorientation will increase, as will the inability to manually fly when the chips are down. The physical interaction between hand (and feet) movements and resulting changes in attitude as observed by the eyes/brain is critical in maintaining IF skills. One will never get any benefit from simply watching, even intently, what the aircraft does on the automatics, regardless of how long you do it.
Last edited by Capn Bloggs; 22nd Jun 2010 at 02:30.