Don't beat yourself up Acuba, I suffer from this too, I promised my FI that I wouldn't use FS2004 but I have had a thought.
Guage failures after take off, FS lets you fail any guages at a specified time. What about failing them all 1 min after take off?
My instuctor covers the guages sometime but he didn't last lesson and I forced my eyes outside more.
The other option is put it on that full screen mode with no dash onscreen.
I dunno if these will help but my logic says it might.
Ben (eyes outside at all times) Coulthard