Danny,
Instrument flying is in our family DNA, since I have had an IR since (about) 1969! Your admonition about flying over lit towns, etc, holds little for a Navy pilot used to flying over the unlit ocean for 4 hours at a time below 200ft in fog
Then returning to a darkened ship, too.
Mind you, flying over much of Australia is above the GAFA with not much in the way of ground lighting.
Caged gyros are still around, although not so much these days. Going off on a tangent they are quite helpful when moving a skid equipped helicopter on a trolley since the lack of suspension can play havoc with a gyro unless it is either fully wound down, fully erect or caged. Since it can take 20 minutes to wind down most moves are made with the battery on and the gyro fully erect, but that does require a memory action by the pilot/engineer which can be forgotten.
Union Jack, I read your post about Hasenfus to Dad and tried a bit more research, but with little more than you found. Although Polish he was educated/lived in both Germany and Switzerland and Dad recalls vividly how unpleasant it was to listen to, let alone put up with, his extolling of the virtues of the way things were done 'so much better in Germany'. Quite odd for a Pole who was being trained to fly and fight against that very nation?!