what's the solution? I'll tell you: get pilots engaged in "flying" a bit more! You lot can waffle on about SOPs and not knowing the ins and outs of the grand airbii and intricacies of other types all you like but if pilots don't have basic flying skill, mainly because they are not allowed to keep current doing it, then don't blame them when the likes of AF447 happens.
Isn't that so true? Simple little things like turning off the flight director in the climb or descent gives a little relief from the boredom of the automatics and sharpens the scan - providing that is not against the Koran or the local Deity of course.
In the simulator, unless during type rating or recurrent training he is not hamstrung by regulatory box ticking or a frowning management, then so much depends on the personal attitude of the simulator instructor towards practice of raw data hand flying. Simulator practice can be made enjoyable if the right personality is in the instructor seat.
To those who remark sarcastically that simulator training was never meant to be enjoyable, I say that is quite wrong. Even Maths can be made enjoyable in the class-room given the right teacher. But have the grim wrong teacher and maths becomes a loathed subject as many students have found out. Me for one. Same with simulator instructors where the Horror Box is often rightly named. Wise management will allow for more than just a couple of minutes manual non-automatics practice during simulator training. That policy, if regularly implemented, would have saved hundreds of lives in the past and also in the future.