You'll find a lot of crusty old examiners that would feel the opposite. It's all in who you talk with. Personally, I think that technology has it's place in the cockpit, but good old fashioned airmanship does as well. My fear for a lot of the newer pilots is relying on the new technology and giving up on stuff like charts. I know situational awareness is better with a gps when you can literally scroll it down and say "I'm flying over the corner of 6th. Ave. and Elm Street" in whatever town. But, when the screen goes blank can they pull out a chart and find which town they're over? A lot of pilot's can't. It used to be you had to. I know of instrument rated pilots who can't track a VOR. Kindof scary. Also, I flew with a guy awhile back that I don't think looked out the window beyond 500 feet AGL... the rest of the time he was paging through God knows what in his GPS. And, I did a stage check (the student did not pass) at an old flight school I worked at and the pilot scrolled the GPS down and flew his traffic pattern with the stupid thing.
All this does is make me sound against technology. I'm not. Granted, I don't have much experience with the fancy avionics of today, but I do realize that it can help pilots, provided they don't abuse it. Nor does it mean that all pilot's flying steam gauges look outside enough, I know a few who don't. My point: just because the fancy G1000's are becoming more commonplace is cockpits does not make a couple of VOR's, and ADF, and a glideslope unsafe. Delta still fly's the old DC9's with the configuration across the U.S. daily, and I believe Southwest airlines still has a few, as do many other airlines. It's common in freight. As the new airplanes get older glass cockpits will become more commonplace in freighters. But, there will likely be steam gauges flying for decades to come regardless, and they will be flown daily, and it will be done safely as it has been for decades.
