Yep have to confess I was guilty of looking too much at the instruments in the intial CPL training. I had previously done my IR and had to force myself to look back outside again.
My instructor used to thump my leg and make buzzing noises - it became like Pavlovs dog where he could just make a buzz and watch you jump
Needless to say I got over the habit and the lookout returned....
On my CPL test the cross check with instruments was emphasised and not a purely out of the window maneouvre although you were watched to ensure that a majority of your time was outside as it was a
crosscheck and not done soley by. Hitting the wake got you extra points
J.