> engine gages should change color, or the electronic "needle" should
> change from green to yellow to red, have an audible warning or even a
> voice warning.

are you baiting me? man, I'll byte (bite me Scott). here is an images of
CFS 5.0C (in development) with blinking colored needles. (bitching Betty
has always been there) http://d2av.com/screen/tt6.gif

> like a nice round heading indicator to orient myself to runways.

this was the biggest thing I missed about an old HSI. I would bug the
inbound course, dial the arrow to the runway heading pointing to active
runway... now I:

Info hard button
  Push (pre-entered active waypoint, currently dest or enter new)
  Scroll to ATIS
  Push com1 soft button to send freq to sl30
  Push flip-flop on sl30 and record winds

Actv hard button
  Push (active dest highlighted, or so scroll through flightplan)
  VFR appr...
  runway 16L
http://d2av.com/screen/vfr-appr.gif

the mini will leave a lolly pop on the airport, but add an extended centerline
with GS at the end of runway 16L. It highlights that runway, while depicting
all the inactive runways on the ground too.
http://d2av.com/screen/im.gif  (put that flight path marker on the runway
and that's where you going it smack it, works great even in a turn!)

the mini map is also helpfull guiding one to the boxes when intercepting
old fashion approaches well inside the IAF.
http://d2av.com/screen/CAPT08.gif

several moving maps change the color of the terrain and towers
http://d2av.com/screen/shadows.gif (5.0C requires extra ram)
but do they remove the alarm as soon as the flight path noodle moves
away from the terrain? CFS does. any dirt or towers sticking above
the horizon in look forward mode will also rein your day.
http://d2av.com/screen/forward.gif

vertical *guidance* (highway in the sky and synthetic vision) are
the key market differentiator for CFS. the rest are just steam gauges.
http://mail.d2av.com/Lists/news/Message/7.html

(yea, I'm alittle bias :-)

                        Rob