DCS Black Shark - Tunnel Vision

The game: DCS Black Shark
The tactical situation: a flight of two Ka-50 is prepping by fire the route that land forces will use to advance  through insurgent-controlled territory.
The topic: sensors are good, but watching out of the cockpit is what keeps you alive.

We stop well ahead every built up area to scan ahead.

Found a truck-mounted ZU-23-2 near the road. We fired at it, but the range was too high (3.4 km).

In search for a better angle of fire and a better range, we fly parallel to the road with the threat at our left.

At the new firing position, the range is still high. But the field of fire is extremely clear.

The new firing position and my sustained staring at the SHKVAL got us too close to a new built up are. Another AAA position fired at us and hit me.

The shark is bleeding smoke as I pull it out of trouble. The enemy AAA keeps shooting at us: see the tracer just below the rocket pods in my left pylon.

With all this damage, I'm surprised I could fly the shark out of the enemy fire.

Emergency landing. This is not going to look good in my pilot's file.

The enemy system that hit me was another ZU-23-2. I was a fool letting my flight so close to the built up area. But while reviewing the mission track I could see a first burst of AAA not hitting me. If I would be watching out through the window instead of the Shkval screen, I could have avoided the enemy fire.

Cheers,