I see you are taking the “Don’t ask yourself why, ask yourself why not?” approach 
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Oh no, there is a why. The increased drag and weird roll-coupling behavior of flaps 40 make the 737 land like an entirely different machine. Repetitive behavior allows the brain get comfortable and that’s where mine gets sloppy. I am a believer in making occassional small changes to keep me from digging deep repetitive ruts. In the very regid environment in which we fly, there are only a few opportunities for safe skill-building. That, at least, is my rationale. 
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I like your way of thinking, @smokinhole.
It is true that you get good at what you do often.
But the flip side of that is if you do what you always do, then that will be all you can do…
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I fully agree with that, I do the same thing in maintenance. Switch up tasks instead of always focussing on the few same things. It’s important to keep yourself from becoming complacent and competent with all the different facets that we face daily in aviation.
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Thanks. (And sincere appologies for the drift. The 727 looks sensational!) I am on a minor crusade. I watched my dad ease into airline retirement and within just a handful of years, ease into a stupor which turned into dementia by 70 and death a few years later. Mom, on the other hand, read a book a day and did every crossword she could get her hands on. At 85 she could still hold her own in any discussion on just about any subject. She can kick my butt in political debate without once getting shrill or raising her voice. She can barely move but her mind is as nimble as it was at 30. I am hoping that more than genetics is a play to explain the difference between the two. In the meantime, I make dozens of tiny little choices in hopes of aging more like her and less like him.
To take this bleak interlude back around to somewhere close to on-thread, I believe this hobby rewires our brains in similarly beneficial ways so long as we keep trying (and buying) new stuff.
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I bet! There are more opportunities for this sort of nibleness for you guys than for us, I believe. I had a 777 check-airman in my jumpseat two days ago who proudly listed all the changes that are about to hit us. None of them good. We are being converted into automatons who do nothing but push buttons and talk about pushing buttons.
Here’s how we used to go directly to Greensboro:
“You good with that?”
“Yep.”
(Execute and verify LNAV)
Here’s how we do it now:
“I have GSO on top of page one! Are you ok with it?”
(Other pilot fiddles with the Plan page looking for visual confirmation of GSO. Meanwhile ATC wonders why we haven’t yet made the turn). “OK. Looks good!”
“Executing! I see FMC Speed, LNAV, VNAV.” Do that 100 times a day and you will be as braindead as I am.
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This is why being a commercial pilot never really drew me in. Sad to see this happening to you all up in the front seat!
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That’s the beauty of flying old analogue aircraft, in mostly uncontrolled airspace, for an airline that encourage maintenance of manual flying skills.
But the trend in the business is towards what @smokinhole is describing.
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Can you publish that, stick an “M.D.” on the end of your name, and then I can present said evidence to my wife as a great reason to buy the Flight Factor A320 to my wife?
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@Chuck_Owl Do you recon the DMS V.S. Degrees Minutes Tent of a Minute is a big difference? I would guess it means rounding up or down based on the dropped decimal but other then that I have no experienced a significant decrease in accuracy in X-plane atleast.
I do want to update the manual but I am trying to see if the consequences are terrible as is?
This seems to be the scale of an Arc Second on the planet, although not linear
It is my professional and studied opinion that all pilots benefit both mentally and physically from occasional simulated virtual aviation activity. Thirty years of research has consistently demonstrated that pilots who maintain a moderate level of debtload to support a robust involvement in the hobby are superior humans in nearly every regard when compaired to otherwise equivalent participants in a control group. Active Virtual Pilots (AVP) are demonstratably better husbands, fathers, cooks, dishwashers, household maintainers, landscapers, clothes folders and foot massagers. Data indicated the surprising result that even female AVPs made better husbands and fathers.
Conversely, the majority of control group participants were unemployed with a significant number in incarceration.
Dr. Eric Anderson, M.D, Ph.D., ATP
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A Norwegian control study support those findings.
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Man…you even convinced me…!! 
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I honestly haven’t compared it to see the difference. The results I had with DMS were pretty good IMHO. The thread in question is here:
Interesting, someone mentions:
I tried to use “tenth of minute” format with CIVA I’m getting awfully off designated waypoints. In contrast, “seconds” format actually works perfect for me. Don’t know why and how CIVA code works, but that is the way it is.
So definitely worth testing, the manual insists on using the tenth of minutes, I’ll have a look later on. I wonder if it is someone putting in value’s bigger then 5 that might be causing the waypoints to be off.
Every chart I’ve used had waypoints marked in fractions of a minute. Using seconds would require converting each point. Seems open to error.
Indeed it is, but that’s how these old systems worked.
My start was on a DC-10 using Delco Carousels. And honestly I don’t remember which format it used. I do know that we never converted so maybe the plotting charts were in DMS back then.
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I take it you had some sort of dispatch office back then that would do the work back then if needed? Honestly it’s a time before my time which I find fascinating but do know absolutely nothing about short of the bits and bobs we come in contact with through sims.
What was it like to fly the DC-10? Did you do a lot of updating of the CIVA during a flight?