"Roger Long" om wrote in
message ...
You've been flying a long, long time and I'm sure you've forgotten a lot
about being low hours
[...]
Telling students and low frequency fliers that they should not include the
instruments in their scan is actually dangerous advice.

When I was a student, with relatively few hours, during my night training,
we flew approaches without any interior lights at all, to simulate an
electrical failure. Even at that point, I was able to fly the airplane
without reference to the ASI, turn coordinator, and attitude indicator.

I don't feel that I was an unusually talented student. I had all the same
hurdles to cross as any student, with all the usual learning plateaus.
IMHO, if a private pilot cannot fly the airplane without reference to the
instruments, it is not because they are inherently not able to. It's
because no instructor ever bothered to give them appropriate training.

Pete