I personally havent noticed any VCs that show the nose/cowling of the aircraft in front. I find I have a hard time linning up any aircraft in FlightSim though I have no problem doing it in real-life. Im suspecting that I natural take cues from cowling/nose and its relation and relative movement with the center-line and such...but with no cowling/nose in FS in 2D or VC I find Im all over the place.Is it possible for PMDG to add in the 3D representation of the cowling/nose from inside he cockpit?Lastly, which zoom setting is most accurate from scale, relation, etc from 2D and VC. I assume the 1x zoom is actually a fish-eye view, so a higher zoom of 1.5x or more would better represent a centralized or focal vision that would have the runway feel up the appropriate veiwing area while on the ground and nearing the stall.

I have had trouble with alignment too. What I do is just put the runway on the centerline of my monitor. It may sound like a "well duh" statement but what you see out the window in fs can be decieving. WIth window frames and not being centered on the glareshield in addition to the fact the you are into what you are doing you may miss cues you can use like the monitor frame. I hope this helps you like it did me.

Do you own trackIR?Rob

Glad you mentioned the Track IR. I have one of those. I didn't even notice until after I posted. The little device you put on your monitor is a good reference point for the center of the monitor.

Yeah, I'll have to re-install it.

Charles,do I understand you correctly... you'd like to see the nose of an airliner from inside the flight deck? At least on the MD-11 you have no chance to see that sitting in the pilot's seat on the real aircraft. You'd have to get up and squeeze your head between the standby compass and the glareshield right to the glass to see that. Not something you would do while flying or taxiing :)It's far easier to use the PFD/ND as a reference point when flying using the VC to get good alignment for the runway.Regards,Markus

Yeah, I was afraid of that, but I figured it could be done for other aircraft...especially the default aircraft(but PMDG cant do anything about those), I guess I was mostly thinking out loud...and in print.