I think it is. Some guys don't appreciate the history and architecture of training centers. To each his own.

I guess 'Sailor' and I disagree.

In the sim, there isn't too much hand flying, currently. While this profile is a bit different (they lose the engine AFTER T/O and AFTER they get the A/P on - we'll get a V1 cut, every time) and their procedures and call outs are slightly different, this is a pretty good representation of how Spirit wants it done in the sim right now.

On the line, some guys hand-fly, but the majority don't above 3K-5k feet. Some are even a bit nervous when the other guy chooses to hand-fly - which makes me nervous, b/c they clearly aren't ever hand-flying themselves. Those that do usually keep the Auto-Thrust on. There's a small subset that try to turn as much off as they can (A/P, F/D, A/T) and just fly the VOR needles or ILS raw data, but that's still somewhat rare - or it is with the guys I fly with, at least. Usually, on a multi-day trip, someone has to 'break the ice' and turn everything off on Day 2 (after proving on Day 1 they don't need to be watched), and then the other guy will often do it on his leg.

We're flying into more busy, high-traffic airports these days, which necessitates keeping the A/P on to look for traffic.