MSFS 2024 on PS5: Your First 10 Flights (PSVR2 + Marketplace Ready)

Welcome. If you bought Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on PlayStation 5, or you are about to, this guide is for you. Specifically: you are not a PC enthusiast, you do not own a yoke or rudder pedals, you have a DualSense controller and maybe a PSVR2 headset, and you have never seriously flown a flight simulator before. That is the audience. We will treat you like a smart adult who has just never seen a cockpit.

Sim Update 5 is the moment everything changes for PS5 owners. It is expected to ship the week of 20-24 April 2026, and it brings two big things: PlayStation VR2 support for all 125 aircraft, and the PS5 marketplace finally opens to third-party add-ons. If you have been waiting to dive in, this is the week.

This guide gives you a real path through the first ten hours: how the DualSense maps to a cockpit, what to fly first, when to bother with Career Mode, when to put the PSVR2 on, what to buy from the marketplace, and ten specific first flights that build skills in the right order.

Is MSFS 2024 a game or a hobby?

Both, but mostly a hobby. This is not a game you "beat." There is a Career Mode with progression, and there are missions, but the heart of Flight Simulator is choosing where you want to fly, picking an aircraft, and flying it well. People put hundreds of hours into this sim and feel like they have just started.

That changes the mindset you should bring. You are not trying to win. You are trying to learn one small thing each flight. Your first hour, you might just take off and land at the same runway five times. That is a successful hour.

What you get on PS5

There are four editions on the PlayStation Store: Standard ($69.99), Deluxe ($99.99), Premium Deluxe ($129.99), and Aviator ($199.99). The aircraft count climbs with each tier, from 70 in Standard up to 125 in Aviator. For your first ten flights, the Standard edition has more aircraft than you will touch. The Cessna 172 you will live in for a week is in every edition.

A few things to know going in:

• It is a big download. Plan for tens of gigabytes plus a streaming connection during play. The world data streams from the cloud.
• You need PlayStation Plus for online multiplayer features, but you do not need it to fly.
• PSVR2 support is a free update that arrives with Sim Update 5. You do not pay extra for it.

DualSense controls: what each button does

The DualSense is genuinely good for flying once you know the basics. Here is the mental model. The exact bindings can be remapped in Options > Controls, but the defaults work for the Cessna out of the box.

• Left stick: pitch (up/down to point the nose down/up) and roll (left/right to bank).
• Right stick: rudder (left/right) and view look (up/down adjusts the seat or look angle, depending on context).
• R2 trigger: throttle. Pull harder for more power.
• L2 trigger: brakes when on the ground. In the air, often mapped to spoilers or other secondary functions depending on aircraft.
• L1 + D-pad: quick views. Great for snapping to instruments before landing.
• R1: cockpit interaction / cursor click.
• Touchpad: menu / map.
• Options button: pause and main menu.

The DualSense does some flight-sim-specific things that PC users do not get for free:

• Adaptive triggers push back differently depending on aircraft state. On the ground at high speed, R2 feels stiffer. In the air it gives you sloped resistance so you can feel the throttle position.
• Controller speaker plays ATC voices through the DualSense itself, like a tinny cockpit radio. It sounds odd at first, then becomes immersive.
• Gyro controls let you tilt the controller like a yoke for fine roll inputs. Most beginners turn this off until they are comfortable. You can enable and tune it under Controls > Sensitivity.
• Lightbar and touchpad can be customised in settings.

One thing the search results on every forum will tell you: spend ten minutes in Options > Accessibility adjusting cursor speed and acceleration. The default cursor for clicking cockpit switches is too slow for some players and too fast for others. Make it feel right before you fly.

Your very first flight: the only one that matters

Open Free Flight, not Career Mode. Pick the Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Pick a small airport you recognise from a road trip or holiday. Set the weather to "Clear Skies" and time to midday. Set the start position to "On Runway." Turn all the assists on for now (you can turn them off later, one at a time).

Your goal: take off, fly a wide circle, land back on the same runway. Nothing else.

Here are the C172 numbers you actually need. These come from the real Cessna 172 pilot operating handbook and are the same in the sim:

• Rotation speed (Vr): about 55 knots. Pull gently back on the left stick, do not yank.
• Best climb speed (Vy): 74 knots. Hold the nose so the airspeed sits there.
• Best angle of climb (Vx): 62 knots. You only need this for short runways with obstacles.
• Approach speed: 60-70 knots with full flaps. Aim for around 65 over the threshold.
• Stall is below 50 knots in landing configuration. Stay above that.

A typical pattern: throttle up smoothly, hold the nose level, let the speed build, gently rotate at 55, climb at 74. Level off at 2,500 feet. Fly straight for a minute. Bank gently to the left until you have turned 180 degrees. Fly back parallel to the runway. Bank again until lined up with the runway. Reduce throttle, drop flaps in stages (10, 20, then full), aim for 65 knots, idle the throttle just before the threshold, flare gently as the runway rises to meet you.

You will probably bounce. You will probably land long. That is fine. Do it again. The third time will be better than the first.

Career Mode vs Free Flight: which to start with?

Both are valid. Here is the honest difference.

Free Flight is the sandbox. You pick the aircraft, the airport, the weather, the time of day. There are no objectives. This is where you learn. Most experienced sim pilots fly in Free Flight 90% of the time.

Career Mode wraps a progression system around the same flying. You make a pilot avatar, start at a small aero club (you cannot start at Heathrow, by design), and earn certifications by completing training and exam flights. As you progress you unlock mission types like air ambulance, cargo runs, search and rescue, VIP charter, and aerial firefighting. You earn money, buy aircraft, eventually start your own company.

The catch on PS5 (and everywhere): not every aircraft in the sim is supported in Career Mode, and third-party marketplace planes are not consistently available there. So Career Mode is great for structure but you will hit walls the sandbox does not have.

Recommendation: do your first three or four flights in Free Flight to get comfortable. Then start Career Mode for structured progression. Use Free Flight whenever you want to explore something specific. We have a deeper look in our Career Mode guide and a breakdown of which aircraft to use in Career Mode once you are ready to get serious.

PSVR2 setup: when to use it, when to take it off

This is the headline feature for PS5 in 2026. With Sim Update 5, all 125 aircraft work in PSVR2. The development team rebuilt every cockpit interaction to use the PSVR2 Sense controllers naturally — knobs, switches, levers all become things you reach out and grab in 3D space rather than cursors you click. They use Foveated Rendering (Flexible Scaled Rasterization) and frame-doubling techniques to hit acceptable framerates on PS5 hardware, and a new Virtual Reality graphics settings menu lets you trade visual quality for smoothness.

When PSVR2 is great:

• Low-and-slow general aviation. A Cessna 172 over your home town in VR is the closest most of us will get to actually flying.
• Helicopters. The Guimbal Cabri G2 in particular has been highlighted by the dev team for its peripheral vision and immersion in VR.
• Aerobatics and short flights. The Red Bull Air Race aircraft in VR are striking.

When PSVR2 is hard:

• Long flights. Even with comfort, an hour in any VR headset is a lot.
• Reading small instruments and FMS screens. Resolution is good but not infinite. Airliner FMS work is often easier on flat screen.
• Your first ever flight. Learn the basics flat first. Putting on a headset before you understand the controls just doubles the disorientation.

Practical comfort tips: take the headset off every 20-30 minutes the first few times. Sit with your back against a chair. Keep the room cool. If you feel queasy, land immediately and stop. Most people adapt within a few sessions.

The PS5 Marketplace: what to buy first (and what to skip)

Until Sim Update 5, the PS5 marketplace was first-party only. With SU5, third-party add-ons start arriving. Asobo has been clear that not every PC add-on will appear immediately — each one has to pass Sony's platform and performance certification, and some require modifications to run on PS5 hardware. Expect a "first selection" at launch and more rolling in over weeks and months.

A few honest rules:

• Wait two weeks before buying anything expensive. Read the reviews on the MSFS forums. Console-ported add-ons sometimes have early issues that get patched fast.
• Free content first. There are free city updates and world updates from Microsoft directly. Download those before paying for anything.
• Buy airports you actually fly into. A beautifully detailed scenery package for an airport you never use is wasted money.
• Avoid complex study-level airliners on day one. A photoreal Boeing 777 add-on is exciting until you realise you need 60 hours of training to start the engines. Stick to the in-sim aircraft until you genuinely outgrow them.

What about hardware add-ons on PS5? Officially, the only supported flight peripherals at launch are the Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS 4 and the Thrustmaster T.Flight Rudder Pedals (which connect through the HOTAS). The PC ecosystem of Honeycomb yokes, Virpil throttles, and so on does not officially work on PS5 today. That may change. Until it does, the DualSense and the HOTAS 4 are your two real options.

If you are leaning toward serious airliner flying eventually, the best hardware for airliners guide covers what you would want on PC. On PS5, save your money for now and master the DualSense.

Charts, navigation, and SimBrief: do you need them?

Short answer: not yet. Here is the longer answer.

In real aviation and in serious sim flying, pilots use charts (printed or digital maps of airports and approach procedures), they file flight plans with services like SimBrief, they program a Flight Management Computer in airliners, and they navigate using radio aids and waypoints. This is where most people get overwhelmed and quit.

You do not need any of that to fly the Cessna VFR (visual flight rules) between two airports you can see. The in-sim map and GPS are enough. When you eventually want to fly an Airbus A320 from London to Paris with proper procedures, you will need to learn that workflow. We have guides for that when you are ready: SIDs and STARs explained, SimBrief to FMC workflow, and ILS approaches in MSFS.

For your first ten flights: ignore all of it.

Your 10 progressive first flights

Each one builds on the last. Try them roughly in order. Use the Cessna 172 unless noted.

Flight 1 — Pattern at a familiar airport. Pick a small airport near where you live. Take off, fly a wide circle, land. Do this five times in a row. You are learning takeoff, climb, descent, and a basic landing. Suggested: any small airport with a single runway and clear weather.

Flight 2 — Same airport, light crosswind. In the weather menu, add 5-knot wind from a direction perpendicular to the runway. Notice how you have to crab into the wind on approach. The aircraft will not behave the same as flight 1. That is the point.

Flight 3 — Short cross-country. Pick a second airport about 20-30 nautical miles from your first one. Use the in-sim map to plan a straight-line route. Fly between them. Land at the new one. Take off and fly back. You are now navigating, not just patterning.

Flight 4 — Night flight. Same as flight 3, but at night. Lights everywhere, visibility down. Notice what you can and cannot see. Land using the runway lights.

Flight 5 — Mountain or coastal scenery. Pick somewhere visually striking. Innsbruck (LOWI) for mountains, Nice (LFMN) for coast, Queenstown (NZQN) for both. Fly a sightseeing loop. No landing required if the airport scares you. This flight is to remind you why you bought the sim.

Flight 6 — First ATC interaction. Fly any short hop with the in-sim ATC turned on. Listen, follow the instructions, do not panic if you make a mistake. The AI ATC is forgiving. We have a phraseology guide if you want a reference.

Flight 7 — Try a different aircraft. Switch from the Cessna 172 to something else simple. The Cessna 152 if you want similar but tighter, or the Diamond DA40 if you want a slightly more modern panel. Notice what is different. Notice what is the same.

Flight 8 — Your first instrument approach. Back in the C172, load up an airport with an ILS approach. Set the weather to overcast with a low cloud base. Use the autopilot and the G1000 (the digital cockpit panel) to follow the ILS to the runway. This is your first taste of "real" instrument flying. The G1000 avionics guide will help.

Flight 9 — Helicopter for an hour. Pick the Guimbal Cabri G2 or the Robinson R22. Helicopters are completely different. You will probably be terrible. That is expected. Hover practice for 30 minutes will teach you more about flight controls than 10 hours in a Cessna. The helicopter guide walks through the basics.

Flight 10 — A jet. Now try the Cessna Citation Longitude or one of the included Airbus / Boeing aircraft. Short flight, simple route. Notice the speeds, the workload, the way the autopilot does most of the work. This is where Career Mode and the proper airliner guides start to make sense.

If you make it through these ten flights, you have a real foundation. You will know whether you want to specialise in GA, helicopters, or airliners. You will know whether you want to spend money on a HOTAS or stay with the DualSense.

When to consider a tutor

Most people hit a wall around flight 8 or 9. The instrument approach is where the gap between "flying around" and "flying properly" becomes obvious. You can spend a week on YouTube watching ILS tutorials, getting confused by half-explained terminology, and still bouncing your final approach. Or you can spend an hour on a Discord screen-share with someone who actually knows the procedure and have it click.

The Heathrow ILS analogy: there is a reason real pilots train with instructors instead of just reading manuals. A second pair of eyes in real time saves weeks. If your tenth flight is still ending in go-arounds, it is time. Browse SimTuts tutors who specialise in airliner basics, instrument flying, or whatever you are stuck on.

Where to go from here

Once you are comfortable with the basics, these are the guides that will matter most as you progress:

• MSFS 2024 Beginner Guide — broader companion to this one.
• Career Mode complete guide — when you are ready for structure.
• MSFS 2024 graphics settings — squeeze the best out of PS5 hardware.
• VR flight sim setup guide — once you have spent some time in PSVR2.
• ILS approaches — your first instrument approach.
• Beginner mistakes to avoid — saves you from the common traps.

Frequently asked questions

Is MSFS 2024 free on PS5?

No. The Standard Edition is $69.99 on the PlayStation Store, with Deluxe at $99.99, Premium Deluxe at $129.99, and Aviator at $199.99. The differences are the number of included aircraft and bespoke airports.

Do I need PSVR2 to play?

No. The simulator is fully playable on a flat screen with the DualSense controller. PSVR2 support is a free optional upgrade arriving with Sim Update 5. Many players prefer flat screen for long flights and switch to VR for short scenic ones.

Can PS5 use third-party add-ons?

Yes, but only after Sim Update 5 (expected week of 20-24 April 2026). Each third-party add-on has to pass Sony's platform and performance certification before it appears on the PS5 marketplace, so the catalogue starts smaller than PC and grows over time.

Can I use a real flight stick or yoke on PS5?

Officially supported peripherals at launch are limited to the Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS 4 and Thrustmaster T.Flight Rudder Pedals (which must connect through the HOTAS). The wider PC ecosystem of yokes and throttles is not officially supported on PS5 today.

Is Career Mode the best place to start?

Not for your first few flights. Use Free Flight to learn how the aircraft handles without time pressure or objectives. Once you are comfortable with takeoff, level flight, and landing, Career Mode adds structure and progression — start there for your fourth or fifth flight.

Will my PSVR2 make me motion sick?

It can, especially if you do aerobatics or fast manoeuvres early. Start with a Cessna 172 in calm weather, take the headset off every 20-30 minutes, and stop immediately if you feel queasy. Most players adapt within a few sessions.

What is Sim Update 5 and why does it matter?

Sim Update 5 is the April 2026 free update that opens the PS5 marketplace to third-party add-ons for the first time and brings PSVR2 support to all 125 aircraft. It also includes Aircraft and Avionics Update 4 (reworked ATR 42/72, Antonov An-2, Latécoère 631, Fokker F.VII), the new Working Title Avidyne IFD 540 and IFD 550 navigators, a new weather radar with tilt, and dozens of bug fixes.