Dengue Dude
I do fear the lack of hand flying & raw data flying in the civil world, it is becoming a real issue.
I do as much hand flying of the aircraft as I can if conditions permit and encourage FO's to do the same. Fortunaty I work for an airline that values hand flying skills and the management know that these skills can only be kept current with practice.
Some airlines use the FDM as a tool to beat the pilots, one airline has a policy of sending a text message to the captain of an aircraft if he busts an FDM limit to explane his actions, this "bust" might only be a few KTS below Vref.
The airline that I work for would take no action for a small Vref "bust" as long as the FDM showed that action was quickly taken to increase the airspeed.
The FDM was intended to increase flight safety, what it had done in some airlines is de-skill the pilots by encouraging the over use of automatics (Vref bust....... "not me John ! it was the autothrottle guv").
So getting back to the thread I do have some time for those who suspect the civil flying world would not fit in to the military tanker business however two good pilots on the interview team should be able to weed out the button pushers.......................but don't let the personel depatment within a mile of this job.