Default Scale?

[Peter Kingsbury]

In my mapping application, I'd like to have a default scale to be used 
when the page first loads.

I've attempted to set this in the map file (e.g. SCALE value in the root 
object) as well as MAXSCALE, however it seems to default to a certain 
aggravating value.

I've also tried twiddling with the map extents, however this just causes 
the scale to bump up away from my target scale. :)

Any help is appreciated!

- P