Mxsmanic wrote:

I had the same thing happen in the sim today; you just have to keep your
eye
on the instruments. If there's nothing to see outside the window, there's
no reason _not_ to keep your eye on the instruments.

there are a number of things in an aircraft under IFR that might take
your attention away from the instruments and which are not confined within
a screen right in front of your eyes; in no particular order: checking
the outside temp and looking whether you are getting ice; I know you
read the forecast, but there are always surprises; dealing
with the passager who has just barfed into your charts; changing
frequencies; looking for clean charts and/or reading them; remember,
no 'pause' button; going through check lists; occasionally talking
to a real live person on the other side of the radio who gave
you a complicated clearance that is only superficially related to
what you asked, etc.

--Sylvain