Andrew M.
Thanks for your reply. Map Shift will occur in an aircraft using IRS's (laser gyros basically) to compute its position along with updating for the FMS/FMC from VOR/DME. Its effects will be random and unpredictable. A terrorist simply using a lat/long to guide the aircraft to the target through the autopilot may come unstuck if mapshift occurs, as the aircraft will navigate itself to a point near, but not actually at the target. A trained professional jet pilot knows how to deal with this. I was simply making the point that most PC flight sims will not give the user an appreciation of this point. This is only one of many potential traps that the PC pilot will be unaware of. Therefore I'm in agreement with you that PC flight sims do not present a huge security threat.
AussieRotor.
In relation to your son,
Said the only difficulty he had was flying it level, but no probs with the rest.
I'm sorry, but this just makes me chuckle. As a jet instructor of more years experience than I care to remember, your post just doesn't present the truth of what I have seen and experienced throughout my career. Mind you, I have had lots of people telling me the same kind of stuff that you have, who then get in the sim and make complete fools of themselves. Interesting your son can take off and land, following an ILS approach, but has difficulty flying straight and level. It just doesn't add up. And, you say, he wasn't with an instructor - so he just knew the take-off speeds, flap retraction profile, power settings, attitudes for various phases of flight, flap extension speeds, approach profile and attitudes, gear limiting speeds and flare and landing technique intuitively did he? Oh no - let me guess - he read about it or a friend who flies the aircraft told him before he went in. And that's on three aircraft types. I'm sorry, no offence, but this doesn't correlate to what I see from professional pilots converting in the sim. Usually the "no problem" type of comment you make comes from a great lack of awareness of the kind of standards actually required.