Adobe air 3.4 + auto orient

Question

I'm having trouble with getting the app I'm creating (using Flash professional CS6) to auto orient reliably.  if the app is moved from portrait to landscape, it works fine.  when moved back from landscape to portrait, then the screen items do not move to the desired spots.  within each of the "if" statements I also have commands for setting where screen items within the milApp movie clip are to appear.  Any help is greatly appreciated.
//function to set the stage orientation for the app;
function orientMilApp(event:Event):void
    var device_width:int = appStage.stageWidth;
    var device_height:int = appStage.stageHeight;
    if (device_width > device_height)
        milApp.gotoAndStop("landscape");
        //set the height, width, and position of the cheat sheet;
        milApp.cheatSheet_mc.x = 0;
        milApp.cheatSheet_mc.y = 100;
        milApp.cheatSheet_mc.height = 1657.25;
        milApp.cheatSheet_mc.width = 1280;
        milApp.closeButton_btn.x = 1200;
        milApp.closeButton_btn.y = 101;
        //set the dimensions and position of screen items for the driver manual
        //set the dimensions and position of screen items for the reference manual
      } else {
        milApp.gotoAndStop("portrait");
        milApp.closeButton_btn.x = 720;
        milApp.closeButton_btn.y = 101;
        //set the height, width, and position of the cheat sheet;
        milApp.cheatSheet_mc.x = 0;
        milApp.cheatSheet_mc.y = 100;
        milApp.cheatSheet_mc.width = 800;
        milApp.cheatSheet_mc.height = 1035.80;
        //set the dimensions and screen items of the driver manual
        //set the dimensions and screen items of the reference manual
appStage.addEventListener (StageOrientationEvent.ORIENTATION_CHANGE, orientMilApp);

Answer 1

Having not known the devices you want this to be on, I'd go back to simply measuring the devices resolution width versus height and translate that into landscape or portrait. All you calculations should be based on the returned resolutions for placement of items. It will require somewhat of a layout engine and for you to clearly mark what device resolutions you support.
For instance it's pretty easy to handle Apple because you're really only dealing with 1024x768 or 2046x1536 and portrait is DEFAULT. However if you're just measuring device width and height, you'll still get the same result, portrait, from your measurements.
Android is really rough but gives you more granular control over the minimum and maximum size and resolution of the device. You can clearly mark in your apps android settings that you only support say, 7"-10" devices with a resolution of a certain size (marked as ldpi, mdpi, hdpi, xhdpi). For more info and what all those settings mean, read here: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
xlarge screens are at least 960dp x 720dp
large screens are at least 640dp x 480dp
normal screens are at least 470dp x 320dp
small screens are at least 426dp x 320dp
Staying inside xlarge keeps you in the 7-10" safe range for a larger tablet like the Galaxy.