I am curious.. do you have a Track IR ? What kind of scanning system do you use? What is your stick? If you are useing an X-52 you can use your mouse button to look around and adjust it so that it is almost as smooth and efficient as a head tracking device like TIR or one of the other ones...
Occasionally I will still fly no pit offline but always without icons... I prefer the cockpit on though.. You will find that with practice your "limited" visibility is not as limiting as you think when taking into account the movements of your opposition.. but it is an adjustment..
I was out of gaming for a couple of years.. just getting back into IL2..
I have a complete CH
HOTAS.. TIR.. I also have the X-52, and TM
HOTAS.. so I do have all the equipment I need.. I was just wanting a clean no cockpit view occasionally.. because even with the TIR.. and the 3 DOF mod.. the views with the cockpit on are far from what you see in real life..