Why when you view flights in the State of Alaska does the map/earth/sectional views seem that you’re standing on the 45th parallel but when you view the maps/earth/sectional views of the lower 48 it seems that you’re right over the top. It’s as if the maps/earth/sectional views of Alaska, are like you’re looking at a globe instead of a map.
This is due to the projection we currently use. If you use any other mapping products like Virtual Earth or Google Maps, they all use spherical Mercator. We use something like a flattened cylindrical Mercator, but we don’t stretch latitude vertically as you go north. The two projections are very similar for the continental US, but differ more as you increase or decrease in latitude. You’re used to seeing this:
Notice the stretching of latitude as you go north or south. We don’t do that. The tall rectangles shown above are all squares in our projection, making Alaska look squished.
We’re always investigating new projections for our maps, including some more exotic ones that preserve linearity and allow straight lines to represent great circles.
I noticed that to, Flyboy. I was looking at PAWS, and I was like, what the heck!
Lucent
Thanks for the response.
Will77,
Look up:
Stevens Village
Coldfoot
Fort Yukon
Beaver
Galena
Bettles
AKP
Barrow
Deadhorse
Anchorage is for sissy’s. Head north young man, head north
I want to live near Wasilla…
I’ve heard you can see Russia from there.
That is dang funny! (I like… back up, love Sarah Palin) 
Will live in Manley Hot springs, much better place to live
OK.