Hi flipside,
There's another way to fix your problem. Peter Dowson offers a program called FSUIPC that will fix your gauges. You can get the program at
http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.htmlIf this interests you, be sure to get "FSUIPC for FS2004", version 3.85. It requires a certain amount of reading to get it set up, but isn't difficult. The item to check that fixes the AP is called "Fix control acceleration". The documentation explains what that means.
I'm not sure of this, but you may need to register the software for a few Euros in order to use this particular fix.
Please let us know if this was of any help.
Regards,
JerryH