I learned to fly with piper 180 and 140s with an instrument rating the 172 before I joined the Air Force as a pilot. I was later a T-38A instructor pilot. None of those aircraft had autopilots. Flying the aircraft trimmed up helps quite a bit as you can scan the cockpit without big deviations in heading, altitude or airspeed. Trim is your friend VMC and especially in IMC. I recently got back in the cockpit after 13-years off while I lived in Europe in GA aircraft. Nice to come back to my roots. I suspect I'll still fly without an AP most of the time even if one is available.