I don't have much to add to this topic except the following. This particular way of frightening/killing yourself is about the only one I haven't managed to impose on myself - I have frightened myself in just about every other way aeroplanes offer the unwary/inexperienced/stupid.
Maybe because in my GA career that spanned a decade and nearly 7000hrs I only did about 120 night hours (PNG was just like that) so, people might suggest, maybe I was just lucky.
No it wasn't all luck, or even mostly luck.
For starters I reckon in my first 5000hrs I would be lucky, VERY lucky, to have spent 200 hrs sitting behind an autopilot. That does wonders for your scan. It was also an era when we did IF renewals every 6 mths. I was also lucky enough to have had somewhere along the way an IFR instructor or check pilot (I wish I could remember exactly who because I owe him a lot) who drummed into me how important the IVSI/VSI was in your scan.
VFR or IFR
If you think about it it borders on true to say that it may be THE most important instrument in the panel for truly precise flying. If you want to fly VERY accurately S+L for instance its virtually a waste of time to look at the altimeter after you level off - even a normal VSI (an IVSI is much better) will show you a divergence in altitude that is ABOUT to happen - the altimeter shows you it HAS happened. An IVSI/VSI is equally important in climbing and descending -
if you want to fly precisely the VSI should be deeply ingrained in your primary scan. Its probably true to say my scan takes in the IVSI/VSI 10 times for every once I look at the altimeter and as often as I look at the A/H or HSI/DG.
Too I can distinctly remember lining up for a takeoff in a Queenair to fly a load of newspapers across the Owen Stanleys at 0400, as I did a lot, or a C402A departing Kieta to fly to Lae (direct at night long before GPS and with no autopilot or raft - was I ever that stupid?) and articles/stories that I had read, like those above, would pop into my head - and as I rotated into the blackness I would be saying to myself "Just fly the fricken plane away from the ground!!!"
Thats why I never tire of reading the above type posts/articles. Because NEXT time, even after 16000hrs, I might manage to frighten myself this way too.
