Steve,

Thank you for taking time to write such a long and excellent post. I'm used
to all sorts wacky opinions and divergent viewpoints in these newsgroups but
the near unanimous position that I'm a dangerous nut because I look at my
gauges while flying was startling. I asked the question in the Pilot
Techniques Forum at Cessna Pilots Association where I spend a lot of time
and the unanimous position there backed up my view point. Interesting
cultural difference. A fellow who teaches seminars for advanced pilots
said, "Relying on the sight picture ONLY and not glancing at the airspeed
has resulted in many a flatlander stalling on final at a high altitude
airport. Airspeed, airspeed, airspeed."

I would hate to thing that a student pilot, perhaps not getting the best of
instruction, would look at the consensus of lot of high time pilots here and
decide that he should stop looking at his gauges as opposed to properly
integrating no panel flying into his training.

Let's see if we can get anyone to take you up on your bet

--
Roger Long