FWIW, the map/fading sound thing isn't a bug or feature, it's just how it was designed. If you're in external view when you go to the map, wait a few minutes and then return to the external view, you'll see the view start in midair and "warp" to the plane.
Basically, when you go to map view your FPS view is taken "out/off of the plane" and you hang motionless in the air (kind of like if you watch a missile or airplane that detonates and then you're just floating over the terrain looking at nothing in particular) while the map view is overlayed on the screen, but you're actually still wherever you were in physical space on the map at the moment you hit map while the planes have moved on. When you exit the view, you warp back to whatever you were doing before. If you were just in cockpit view, the snap is pretty much instantaneous, but if you're in an external view you'll get to see a bit of the motion as you move back.