The only gauges I watch are airspeed and altitude. I don't watch them all the time, but I don't stay glued to my enemy either. I also turn up the sound volume for both wind noise and flaps so I have more audio feedback that I find important.
This has a lot to do with fighting style. Because I do a lot of BnZ and energy fighting, I am using other views much of the time. The up/front combo view is very important though, that's the one I use a LOT when closing for the shot. The up/front view is the one that I get when I am in lag pursuit, something I do almost all the time in the P-47 versus better turning aircraft. I also have to force myself to look away from the bogey to do SA scans, and to set up some more complex attacks. I started learning how to do that by trying to execute a proper barrel roll attack as diagrammed by Shaw in Fighter Combat. If you do more TnB type fighting, you will use the straight up and up/front views much more, since you will be turning with your opponent in a one circle fight more of the time.
My only comment would be try to predict where the enemy will be, not just follow him with your eyes. You should be thinking three moves ahead, looking at where he is going to be after this maneuver, and the ones following. If you do that, you will find you do not have to watch the bogey quite as much, because you will be ready for him. Watch the bogey, but keep scanning every few seconds for incoming contacts. Predict where the bogey will be after the next move or two, and set yourself up to be in a firing position when he is most vulnerable.
Easy to say, but tough to do.
These challenges are what keep me interested in playing online air combat games for years and years! Let me tell you, it is very rewarding the first time you pull off the barrel roll attack, or get a kill using Johnson's outside roll move versus a 109.
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Lephturn - Aces High Chief Trainer
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Lephturn's Aerodrome!"Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know." - Michel Eyquem, seigneur de Montaigne. (1533–1592)
