One thing that I have come to realize after building more than five air traffic control simulations: You cannot simulate the real thing on a 19″ screen. There, I said it. My air traffic control simulation weighs in at an impressive 997×738 pixels, which is as large as I can make it while still serving the lowest common denominator. 20% of my customers are still running on a screen resolution of 1024×768, which makes it a tight fit. Any larger, and you wind up with the dreaded scroll bars.
A typical computer screen is simply not big enough to display an 80 mile-wide sector. With such an enormous range, you can’t vector airplanes. The details are too darn small. Since I can’t change your monitor into a 35-inch monstrosity, my simulation zooms you in on the action with its’ relatively small sector. It is only 40 nautical miles from edge-to-edge. Things happen pretty fast in a small sector like this one, and there is very little wiggle room when you get backed into a corner.