All I can say is that I am very happy to have 1400 hours of fighter (no A/P installed) and several hundred of hours doing single pilot IFR without A/P before getting into the world of FMS and A/P and A/THR. There is NO substitute to handling a single pilot jet at maximum performance at both high and low levels, doing stall recoveries, hand flown IFR, pilotage nav at low level and in poor weather. An education not to be missed.
Then again, it did result in a mid-air and an ejection
GF