A real pilot doesn't let automation override his basic flying skills. A real pilot can recover from a stall quite easilly without the aid of a FD. A real pilot knows what his aircraft is capable of doing at high altitude and what it is not capable of doing. Real pilots usually don't end up in the newspaper because they did something incredibly stupid. I guess real pilots also remember the days when you knew how to swing a prop to start an aircraft with no battery installed. Maybe I am just getting old but the new brand of pilots flying the magenta line seem to have not learned the basic skills we all grew up with.