WTF did pilots do before the AT and FDs were so good? For the life of me I cannot understand all this "it's too dangerous to fly with the AP and AT off in IMC, especially anyone on an Airbus. Now, I agree not always, but ****! To me this is nothing but an indication to how low hand flying and instrument scans skills have degraded.
Yes, I know, I'll be graded as a hairy chested chest thumper, but it wasn't that long ago when I started it was expected you could handle that.