My approach to a-10c was something like this:
1. I want to fly right away, but it's overwhelming.
2. No tutorials (to much information and key bindings at once). Just free flight mission ("single missions" for A-10c) with aircraft on the runway, rady to go. No weapons. I just need takeoff, landing speed, flaps, landing gear. Just flying around. Ok, it's easy. Nice, forgiving aircraft. Getting bored, need more.
3. How to fire it up from cold & dark state - interactive lesson or youtube. Ok, got it. I can do it every time whithout help. Fly around as a reward.
4. Shoot stuff. Interactive lessons. Rightful anger against defensless targets.
5. CDU - oh, boy... After months, you still learn something new.
KA-50 more less the same (fly around, start it up, shoot), but you need to know from the start about the trimmer and autopilot.
Maybe stand-alone Su-25: DCS Flaming Cliffs would be interesting for you. It's older version of the aircart (simpler avionics and weapons), but newer model in the game - beatiful 6DOF cockpit, shadows and it is a bit faster.