Ok - thanks for your help. I have a new XP install, a new AC install, fresh preference file and keyboard/joystick configs and - still have a variety of problems. One thing that was going on is that I wasn't familiar with the XP map functionality, and the window with speed, elevation, heading etc was only showing the elevation, so that was the only thing I was adjusting. I thought the other parameters you mentioned must have been in the AC, but puzzling since I didn't know how one could set pitch.
At any rate I still have issues, and they are inconsistent. One strange thing is that the AC shakes a bit even under normal circumstances, but even more so with moving stuff around with the map.
So I've spent probably a hundred hours on this and I'm done - brain fried and frustrated. And ready to have fun again with the sim. So off to other AC and beautiful places to see!
Thanks again for your assistance.