>>1398310FS9 is a flight simulator by default. FSX is just a video game by default. It delivers false scenery placement by design and by default. It requires substantial modification by users before it is safe to use FSX as a flight simulator.
Where scenery is displayed in a video game is of little consequence. Within a flight simulator scenery must be displayed at its real LAT/LON. The gauges always use real LAT/LON and never point to false scenery locations. When a gauge says that a runway threshold is down a 3 degree glideslope, 5 degrees left and at 4 miles that is where it must also be displayed in the outside window of the simulator. Randomly placing scenery at false LAT/LON quite different to that shown on the gauges is a gross error during flight simulator use, or during design of flight simulator components.
In FSX every aircraft and every start up flight must specify the correct ZOOM to place the scenery at its true LAT/LON. Every producer of every *aeroplane* converted or created for use in FSX is individually and personally responsible for placing the scenery in FSX! This design error has caused massive problems for FSX users because many / most third party FSX producers have not understood how FSX works and have failed to impose the required scenery projection code.
Zoom controls the LAT/LON at which scenery is projected in any flight simulator. False ZOOM distorts distance, but false ZOOM does not distort time. If ZOOM is incorrectly coded a ridge that is really 8 miles away may be displayed less than six miles away. At 60 knots we still take 8 minutes to reach it, not less than six minutes. We cannot judge the VSI required to climb over the ridge due to misplacement of the scenery. When descending to land that situation is reversed. It seems that we must descend steeply to a threshold displayed less than six miles away that is actually 8 miles away.
