Regarding the automation issue: if you can't readily to hand fly an aircraft if needed within ATP tolerances you have no place in the cockpit. At my company due to the nature of our airspace and our approaches, as well as autoflight restrictions, many are hand flown with no flight director or a flight director used only for secondary reference. We've had a couple relatively high time jet pilots (5000+ hours, which is high for a turboprop operator) fail our training due to our emphasis on flying unique approaches using raw data or limited FD use.
Honestly in transport category turboprops a pilot can fly the aircraft smoother and more precisely than the autopilot. I found this is often the case on many older jet aircraft as well.
On the military issue, my company has a lot of military pilots and a lot of civilian pilots. I've found military to be no better or worse than civilians, though the high performance fighter pilots definitely seem to generally have more attitude and a notably authoritarian command style.
Last edited by Island-Flyer; 28th Jul 2012 at 10:16.