Harry,
What did you set your zoom scale to?
http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/flex-viewer/concepts/index.html#/Query_widget/01m30000003m000000...
Regards
Anthony
Are you using a tiled base map and have you tried using one of the scales that the basemap has been cached to.
Do you also have the same problem when you deploy the app not just looking at it n the application builder?
Regards
Anthony
Harry,
Does the .xml file that the application builder creates for the widget contain a zoomscale tag?
Regards
Anthony