We now do nearly all of our flying 'coupled up'. The company places great importance on being able to use AP rather than hands flying. In the past we used to have to hand fly a lot of the OPC and LPC but that has now changed. The IR test was all hand flown because that was the way it always was done.!!!
If you're doing a test in IMC, best to let the machine do what it does best I think, but definitely no harm in being able to 'hand fly' the aircraft. One aircraft I know had to be hand flown, no AP's, back from a rig. No big deal really in a 76 if you have at least had a little practice in it.
