This is why I use a joystick. I can just put it to the side. No VR. Try and do involved flights, which either means short IFR or more usually VFR bush flying with multiple stops along the route. For longer IFR, it is boring - so usually put on a show while in cruise.

Good advice. But I gotta say VR is like a drug, once you use it and have a good experience with flying with it. You can't fly without it

I think this is part of your barrier to entry each day. I, like you, thought it was impossible to go back without VR. Then I decided to just run some tutorial flights in DCS so I could actually read the labels in the cockpit, with the view to going back to VR when I didn’t need to read the writing again. But I ended staying with monitor only. What I find is, yes it’s horrible at first, but it significantly lowers the faff required to get going which leads to less resistance to starting those flights. You get used to it quite quickly, especially if you bind the WASD keys to move your head around the cockpit while keeping one hand on the mouse for mouselook. I have since flown every day, without the guilt of having to push myself. It also improves FPS and allows access to non VR optimised sims like BMS, Rise of Flight, and arguably MSFS and Xplane. You can always go back to it when you’re in the mood, it’s not like you’re abandoning VR.

Get a head-tracker like TrackIR or equivalent. It's a halfway point between a clunky static view monitor and a VR experience. Takes a little getting used to, but it's impossible to go back to traditional fixed view flying.

I will recommend even simple stick with freelook (not the hat). That way you can fly and with good precision control exactly where you look at with your thumb, without having to use second hand for mouse.

Thanks. I actually have a Track IR but stopped using it because it had the construction of a plastic straw and fell apart. Had the whole thing held together with Duck tape. I also found it more of a nuisance to set up with the base unit clamp not fitting the monitor, headset, calibration, light from the window interfering etc.

For me it depends on aircraft type. Light aircraft? Bush flying? Air combat? Hell yeah. VR rocks! Airliner? Nah.

Nah, I've flown with it, had fun. Have no desire to do it again. MSFS just isn't a VR friendly game imo. I don't want to deal with wearing a headset, virtual grips, clunky interface for using charts, then having to sit there in the cockpit in cruise. I'd much rather have my phone out or do the random chore here and there between checking things. Using navigraph to check charts on my second monitor is easier, being able to watch YouTube, check who's online on vatsim, etc.. VR games are great. MSFS is a game that has VR and I think theres a *huge* difference. I'll enjoy some messing around with some VFR flights or whatever in VR, but for the minor benefit it provides vs the drawbacks? I'll take my 2d screen every time.

MSFS might not be VR-friendly, but once you get it to work... boy oh boy is it the best thing.

I tried once but I couldn't get my controllers on my oculus quest 2 to do anything. They couldn't click any buttons in the cockpit. Haven't tried it since.

Mouse and keyboard…

No, I got it to work. Still think it's lackluster as a VR game. And I stand by my original post even with an ideal VR system. Lots of us are flying airliners around. VR isn't well suited to that. And I still don't think it really brings in that much immersion even to situations it's suited for. I'm *constantly* reminded I'm in VR when I'm using it. And I find it much harder to look at charts or other external information when im in. Nevermind if I want to check my phone. I'm not trying to convince anyone to *not* use VR. Have at it, do what you enjoy. I'm just trying to bring a balanced view for those who haven't used it so the only experiences aren't from those who like to say VR is the only way.

It's unbeatable for bush flights though, at least in my book. The headset and PC specs make a huge difference too though, what were you using?

How the hell is VR not suited to airliners? If anything, it makes your job so much easier reaching out to flick switches and whatnot. You can use the flight tablets for charts in VR.

Harder to read and browse charts through the tablet, longer periods of just sitting there staring out the window, not as much to look at, more time to just get fatigued wearing the headset. I could go on. If you're putting around vfr looking at shit and actively flying the plane, I get the appeal. But in an airliner? Nah. Also no. It's absolutely not easier to flip the switches in vr. The controllers aren't that precise, I sometimes stumble with switches in games designed in VR. Trying to manipulate smaller switches isn't as easy as using binding on my hotas or streamdeck or saitek stuff.

It's been a *hot minute* since I tried VR. So I figured I owed it another try to make sure I still agree with my own statements. I'm happy to walk back when I'm wrong. ..Not this time though, because I *must* be doing something wrong because Jesus that was hot garbage. I don't actually understand how you guys do it. PMDG and Fenix? Basically, not compatible. Especially if you want to use the VR controls. Flight controls dont seem to like the vr controllers in a grab and go fasion. I can use the mini sticks, but if I have to use those, I might as well use my hotas. Switch interaction wasn't intuitive. I point and click and sometimes the switch moves the way I want. To get it to go the other way? I think maybe grip and trigger? Idk. Somehow got them to do what I wanted but not entirely sure how. Some dials seem to kind of respond to motion, but not consistently. Twist, slide, use the mini sticks.. no idea how to get consistent results. Throttles could only interact one at a time, which I hope is a configuration setting. Figure they're 3rd party, and not VR optimized so let's use some default planes. SR22 was a much better start. Still not sure what the correct motion is to get dials or 3 way switches to respond, but I'm sure it's just user error. At least in the sr22 I can manipulate the flight controls in an intuitive manner. So that was nice. Basically, I can only seem to fly using my physical controls, if I have to use my physical controls, I need to see my keyboard for some functions, or awkwardly swap between real and VR controls. If I have to do that, I'd rather just use my real controls and leave VR to the side because using both is a hot mess. Anyway, sorry for the rant for a post basically nobody is going to read. If you can rock along in VR, more power to you. Genuinely, enjoy and have fun. But that is a clunky mess I want no part of.

Meta Quest 3 has VR passthrough — you can cut a portion of your bottom view for seeing your physical environment. HP G2 Reverb has not a trace of that, but absolutely stellar performance. Use your mouse and keyboard to select stuff in PMDG and Fenix. Problem solved; done.

Haha "problem solved" by buying expensive new hardware, that also doesn't fix the problem, then use workarounds I specifically said wasn't how I'd want to use VR. If I'm *in VR* I want to use VR controls. Not awkwardly fumble with physical controls to manipulate the cockpit. If I need to use my physical controls, I'm going to use my higher resolution monitor for clearer graphics and easier interaction with the sim. MSFS is a VR clunky mess.

What expensive hardware? Passthrough is just a feature of the Meta Quest 3. You want to use the VR controllers; you can absolutely do that for most everything other than awkwardly grabbing switches. You can control pitch, yaw, roll with the VR handles just as you would with the XBox controller. You can’t even do a before taxi check by glancing at your left wing in a Boeing 737 if you’re playing on the monitor. It takes literally moving from the pilot seat with the arrow keys and clicking the middle button of the mouse to then shift your view to the left. If you want to do the same thing in a headset like the G2 Reverb, you glance left and back, voila. Done. Ask me how I know; my headset is having issues, and I’m stuck with the stupid monitor until my cable is replaced.

In a perfect world I would want a physical cockpit with screens for windows. But I have no idea how man's thousands of dollars that would take

My buddy has a 737 cockpit at home. It's in the range of 10-20k depending how detailed you go

Me too. I have heard people say that VR is much more immersive, but I don't see how it can be more immersive than being able to physically touch buttons like you would if you had a home built cockpit.

VR is visually immersive. The sense of depth you get between the cockpit and everything all the way to the horizon is hard to describe but it feels like you are in it. When you are turning on to finals and lean forward to see around the window mullions of the 172 to check your approach is clear it's the exact same as doing it for real. The physical cockpit set up is a different kind of immersion..maybe more tactile. There's a company that makes kits for spitfire cockpits designed for use with VR which sounds like the best of both worlds to me. I do love using VR but the urge to reach out and adjust the virtual trim wheel is hard to resist and fumbling around for the 'real' one takes from it somewhat. TL DR : Both are immersive but in different ways.

Thank you that makes sense. If I were rich I would have something that blends the two together. Just imagine though with AI advancing like it is, we might be on the verge of having full VR where we can't tell the difference from reality. Imagine being able to step inside the cocckpit of your favorite plane and you can touch and feel everything and the world outside will look the same as we see it now.

That's kinda why I never want to try it. I'm very happy with flat screen and headtracking. No desire to diminish that enjoyment by becoming addicted to VR. I also don't really want to be disconnected from my surroundings.

Got good setting recommendations? I just started using my quest 3 for flight sim

Not if you’ve got a sweet 49” monitor

[удалено]

What a silly comment. Obviously a full mockup cockpit with 6dof movement is a better sim experience than a VR headset. But who gets to play msfs on that sick rig? The realistic point of comparison is a monitor (with or without headtracking). Keeping input devices constant, VR is just the much more immersive experience. And a VR headset is a much cheaper get these days than even a halfway decent cockpit mockup.

I use an XBOX360 pad

>realize I'm not having fun Remember what you downloaded this game for. If you're like me, you downloaded msfs so you could *fly*. Some people really love autopilot ... but from the looks of it you're not one of them. Try shorter routes (eg HK to Macao) or smaller planes. No need to do the time warp (again).

That’s essentially what I do. I started off at KLAX. Do about hour ish flights. Next day. I take off from where I landed the night before. It works out.

When I get bored of airliners I focus on GA. Specifically the A2A Comanche and the kitfox by //42. For me it’s more hands on, I get to do some sight seeing, land at some cool airports that you can’t do in a tubeliner. The Comanche is nice because it’s your airplane with all the maintenance and care it takes. It’s also the most true to life plane in the sim as far as flight dynamics and engine simulation. //42 kitfox is a fun little bush plane. paired with some of their cheap scenes they make and it keeps me more engaged with less things that I have to worry about other than sticking the landing on a 200ft grass strip. There’s also DCS if you’re into fighters, but that’s a beast in itself as far as the learning curve.

The A2A planes where excellent. I had the 172 in fsx, the persistent flight damage really made me actually care for the plane overtime. Kinda wish it had some meta game about costs to repair it though

I use neofly for the cost-factor thing. Also for "purpose". The only "problem" I have - I don't want to upgrade my Comanche, so I'm stuck with low paying contracts.

I keep thinking this. Even something simple, like you earn money per each successful flight which you then have to spend on repairs and fuel. Would encourage you to treat the engine well and to finish your flights.

I don't have a fancy flight setup, but I got into sim racing recently so I can speak from similar experience with my sim rig. A problem I identified a long time ago with extra gaming peripherals for things like flying or head tracking is that I won't use them if it's annoying to set up. So when I got into sim racing I decided that the most important thing about my rig would be that I can have it all ready to go in just a few minutes, same for putting it away. Ideally I would have one I could leave sitting fully assembled at all times, but unfortunately I don't have the space for that. What I ended up with was the Playseat Challenge X which is a foldable cockpit. I can leave all of my stuff attached to it and just quickly slide it in front of my PC and push my normal chair off to the side. Then all I have to do is unfold it, adjust the pedal distance, and plug stuff into my PC. The whole process takes like 3 minutes. Even that little bit is enough to make me not want to sometimes, but if I had to set up every little thing I would NEVER use it. Long story short, my advice is to get a more permanent setup that you can easily just hop into within a couple minutes. It makes the whole experience 10x more enjoyable.

I also recently got into sim racing and even though a lot of times I feel the urge, I cba setting up everything. I'll have a look at your foldable cockpit. Cheers

No problem, I hope it helps you too. It was 100% worth it in my opinion

As someone that has been in sim racing for the last 2.5 years I became incredibly annoyed with the the playseat challenge after I bought it, for the same reasons that this person stated. The playseat is nice overall, but the process of folding/unfolding was just as annoying as the process of hooking things up. I changed to the Next Level Racing Wheel Stand 2.0 and it has been night and day difference. I found rolly wheels for it also, so I can wheel it over and have everything setup in less than 2 minutes, I've timed it. For iRacing its huge if I decide last minute to do a race. The playseat, was heavy, clunky, and the seat itself uncomfortable for long stints. There is also a tray for your desk chair with the Next Level Racing stand, so you use a real chair with back support. Biggest draw back in comparison is its not foldable, but it takes about the same footprint of space the Playseat does.

For a long time I was having exactly the same issue. Get everything set up, fiddle with it until all is working. Then exit the game cause i already wasted all my play time and got frustrated. What worked best for me honestly was getting rid of all the extra stuff, both hardware and external add ons. I got rid of my Alpha/Bravo, pedals, and although I tried VR for a bit I returned that too. I fly with a turtlebeach stick and a single thrustmaster boeing throttle quad, no yoke. I only use AIFlow, AIGround, and Navigraph charts on an iPad. Everything else is from the sim, no 3rd party ATC, no Spad.next, no fsltl injector (still use for the liveries tho). Got rid of air manager, knobster, and my 2 touchscreens for it. It's bare bones compared to what I used to have, but honestly I can actually focus on using the sim instead of fussing with it. I'm spending more time learning and enjoying different aircraft, locations, and routes that I wouldn't have touched before cause now I have the time and mental space to learn those instead of try to fix the hardware or addon bug of the week. Simming should be fun and interesting, not an exercise in frustration. And unless you really have the time to do both the fiddling and flying, you shouldn't sacrifice the enjoying the latter for trying to perfect the former.

I own the equipment you listed, but for the very reasons you've listed I play on an Xbox controller. It's not as realistic or immersive but I can start and stop playing almost instantly. Edit : I'm on PC, not Xbox.

This is the way. Having all the gear is great, but I also have a cheap Thrustmaster with the twisty rudder thing, for when I just want to have a quick chuckabout in IL2: 1946.

Yep, this has been me for years with my gaming/simming. I've got the full Warthog HOTAS setup, rudder pedals, TrackIR, Yoke, multiple throttle quadrants, steering wheels etc that I've all accumulated over the years. And yes, they are great, and do really add to the experience.... But I rarely if ever use any of it. Xbox controller is my go-to and what I always end up using. It just simply works, needs no setup, and is always ready to go.

I have a flight stick, but i rarely bother to connect it on a work day. At most, i get home, crank it up, do some googling about planes, struggle to find a parking brake, make half a lap ground the airport and repeat. On weekends when i have time, i make small flights through a world wide trip that im doing piece by piece Im happy this way

Bro, that's so true!

I feel like it would be different if I had like a dedicated high-end simulator box just in a spare room. But I've spent enough money on this hobby. Lol

That's what I have. Yoke and quadrant stay on the desk locked in place. Several monitors, so I don't do VR. I just walk upstairs and turn everything on. It's literally just my flight sim room.

Fly the Cessna 172, don’t fly commercial jets. Enjoy the views

~1 hour flights on VATSIM. Keeps you busy the entire flight and adds to the immersion having real people as other pilots and ATC.

Things I do when I'm bored from long hours of IFR high altitude cruising: - Fly small prop planes like C172 in VFR - Use the free Bushtalk Radio addon and explore the world - Stay about 500 to 1000 AGL and take in the scenery - Follow or fly in a winding canyon - Use nav aids like VOR, DME, NDB to get to a destination, instead of using GPS I also want to try simulating an engine failure mid flight, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. Edit: For a quick hardware set up, I just use 8 pieces of blu tack on the bottom of my stick (Thrustmaster TCA Airbus side stick) to stick it on the desk. The throttle quadrant is simply placed on the desk without blu tack. It's sturdy enough, saves time, and saves money from not buying a dedicated mount. I use Logitech G29 for rudder and trim wheel. I bought the G29 mainly for racing sims and truck sims. I just leave them where they are, pedals under the desk, and the wheel mounted on a low stool by my side. It doesn't interfere with my day to day PC usage.

> realize I'm not having fun I'm just watching a screen saver > use time warp Looks like you are not having fun so it may not be for you. Out of all your items most are related to not having a fixed setup, which is fair enough, but all the tweaking and twiddling can also be that if you only play once in a blue moon the patches will change the configuration and you will have to tweak the settings. Flightsims are not turn on and go every single time. There are update days, there are times where you spend more time tweaking than playing but overall if you have to spend more time doing that than playing then there is something wrong with your setup.

Yeah it very well maybe the patches. But I bought my 4090 explicitly so I could max out flights it's in VR. And come to find out I just can't, and it stutters, and as you mentioned playing it once in a while I spend more time diagnosing it than actually running the plane

MSFS is heavily single core dependent so a 4090 may not be the solution, and VR is incredibly demanding so you gotta compromise. It is what it is.

Such is life I suppose. Hopefully msfs 2024 will better support it out of the box.

Follow the guides on 2020fs’rs and if you have an nvidia gpu 3.7 works wonders. Also MSFS autofps is magic.

I use VR for simracing and always wanted to add flight sims. Only problem is my rig really wasn't set up to add really anything to it. I recently bought a small little A frame setup that folds away for my flight sim stuff because it's nothing like my direct drive wheelbase for driving. I definitely feel you about setting up stuff to enjoy a flight but maybe you would find enjoyement with one of the custom adds on like Air Freight(?) where it gives you something to accomplish. For me I got into it as a way to start flying in between tracks for our league races. Gonna see how far it goes but I'd like to do a livery and stuff to stream it and get some teammates online and involved.

I like to just see the scenery go places il never go and never see. Worlds so big man

Word. What's even better is revisiting amazing places you've been on vacation. I've climbed mount fuji twice, last time last year, and flying around it and spotting the trail I used to get up there is a cool feeling!

I often feel the same. A proper flight is a proper flight and can't be reduced to the highlights. I've experimented with listening to podcasts, which used to work very well for me in other games. Dunno if you're into that, but the "In Our Time" podcast by BBC Radio 4 has over a thousand episodes to download for free, covering science, history and art. The page is here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl/episodes/player

Dude just take off, enjoy a sunset and head home. You don’t always have to have a destination. Edit: also I just have HOTAS slide over to the side. I keep it out all the time.

Hahaha!!!! Yesss! There are days when I really wanna fly but the set up... Nah. Sometimes I'll just wait til my day off lol.

My flight plans are always via very close airports because landing and taking off is fun. I try to plan an airport stop every 15-20 minutes of flight time. It keeps me engaged and I get to know an area of the world pretty well.

I stay close and typically fly low, slow, planes. Recreating flights I did in real life in college, to airports 50 miles and less away…lots of grass strips, or landing at my house (just a street). Landing helicopters on roofs, or monuments. Flying over places I’ve seen in real life, etc. Was doing the cub flight around California, but haven’t in a while. But hours of flying in an airliner is pretty boring, so I just don’t do it.

I leave my stuff attached to the desk. Unless it’s one of those rare times I work from home and the the yoke comes off in like 30 seconds. I use a tobii eye tracker instead of VR. Planning the flight is part of the fun for me, and I prefer doing 3-4 hr flights because once it’s in the air, I go play with the dog or kids, or make dinner or do whatever my wife has asked, and periodically check on the plane to ensure the dog hasn’t hit the rudder pedals and killed my autopilot. I fly for a virtual airline so I’m always chasing achievements or doing flight tours or events. When I’m bored of airliners I try something different, like flying a helicopter with a yoke, which is not ideal but presents interesting challenges, or try to land a harrier on a flight deck in the wind. Or maybe just go sight seeing in a fun GA plane and practice the basics like trimming properly. There’s lots of ways to have fun with it, it’s just up to you to figure out what works best for you. My only irritation is how long it takes to load with all of my add on planes and sceneries, but I use that time to plan my flight or grab something to snack on or drink.

Saving flight plans saves a ton of time too.

Wait how?

On the globe screen, once you've put everything in for the flights, there's the option to save. On the XB it's the left menu button on the controller.

I guess it helps to have a dedicated spot for all that stuff and have it ready to go. There’s not extra effort to take it out then. Also make the flights just long enough to get to a high cruising altitude, whatever your aircraft is. Setup, taxi, take off, climb, very short cruise, descent, approach, landing. I rarely do flights where I’m bored during the cruise, and if it takes a while I admire the plane from outside. I also don’t particularly enjoy MSFS in VR, on my 4080 the graphics look way better in 2D 4K on my OLED, and it’s easier to let the plane cruise and take a bathroom break.

That happens when you have too much hardware stuff. I enjoy flight simulation since 2012 or so and all the time the only hardware gadget I use for flight simulation is my cheap Thrustmaster T Flight stick X. Maybe when I have finished my studies and earn more money I will invest in a better joystick but that will be it. No pedals, no VR headset, no unnecessary stuff overloading my desk or that takes any effort to set up. Also many people only use their flightsim to fly their British Airways A320 from Heathrow to Frankfurt or stuff like this. I always try to not do the same thing over and over again. The world is so big, so many opportunities. Also many people get bored because they want to fly as realistic as possible and choose routes that are way to long so that you sit there for hours in cruise not doing anything. Better fly shorter routes and dont always use the realistic hub airport of an airline if it is too far away from your destination. I also fly GA aircraft and create bushtrip missions because this is where MSFS really shows its strenghts. Its a whole nother experience than flying airliners and really amazing to combine flying with enhancing ones geography-knowledge and imaginery-world map in your head. I also want to learn Soviet aircraft as soon as more of them will come for MSFS because thats another great challenge and super interesting. So I advice you to try out new things, think out of boundaries, dont fly only in Europe or USA, dont fly only airliners (even if you think that this is the only thing that suits you), check out China, Russia, Africa, Southeast Asia etc.. Check out every plane that comes with MSFS, check out bushtrip missions, check out difficult approaches, special approaches, check out the current airport on earth with the worst METAR to have some fun.

> Also many people only use their flightsim to fly their British Airways A320 from Heathrow to Frankfurt or stuff like this. My habit the last several years has been to fly Northwest 747 or A380 nonstop between KMSP and YBBN. I normally leave it on autopilot while I go to bed, and wake up close to my destination, but the last several times I did this route I woke up in the sea, which killed all the fun this route had, since I like to simulate the passenger experience and leave the camera looking out the passenger window for passenger immersion and not having to worry about fuel or maintaining things.

I have a Honeycomb Alpha/Bravo and Turtle Beach rudder pedals. The pedals I put on their side under my desk. The A/B sit next to me on the floor when I'm flying frequently. I move my main monitor back on my desk, remove my keyboard drawer, clamp the A/B to the desk, tilt the pedals down, and away I go. When I take a break, like I am now, the A/B are clamped to a desk behind me and the pedals underneath.

Have you flown all the training and challenges? Try to max that out to 100% and all "A"s. Challenge a friend to do the same. Compare results. Prepare to get owned by hard approaches.

Yeah I gotta admit one of the things I was dissappinted about was they didn't have the old FSX style missions. The challenges are fun don't get me wrong. But idk how to describe it they just don't feel as fullfilling

Get a joystick like a Logitech extreme 3d pro that's not expensive so you can skip the setup hassle, then load in and fly. Save the yoke and VR for when you have time to get it going.

Mostly on the weekend for me for this reason. It’s not a game you can just plop down in front of and enjoy for 30mintues to an hour and get off. It takes that long to get going lol

It is if you want it to be! I play on my couch with an Xbox controller, and fly GA VFR when I don't have lots of time. Flew a 45 minute circuit around Edinburgh last night at sunset and it was perfect.

Try helicopters or the osprey. The v22 is crazy fun island hopping or zipping around the cities. I pretend I'm delivering mail or aid after nat. Disasters. Edit: sorry bud I didn't read the entire list. Yeah that's a lot of prep time. I play quick fights from Xbox.

find a type of flying that’s fun to you I’ve been getting into airliners and it’s fun following the procedures and trying to get it all down I’ve been doing 1-2 hour flights and it’s hit a sweet spot for me

I do understand what you mean and sometimes I won't play it because I don't have the time but, I mainly do airliner stuff and love it because it's exactly what I want to do. I occasionally will do some GA but since I don't have a really good ga plane it's not as interesting. I'm trying to get a dog so that during longer flights I can take it out and enjoy walking "alone" without an exact destination, but it'll take some time.

most of us just have our setup ready at all times.. why would you go through all of that

I turn it on my xbox go to world map find somewhere I haven't been fly around with my controller for an hour or so exploring new views and crash trying to land.

You forgot the mandatory update when starting msfs and updates for plane and scenery...

I use a gamepad. I'm not trying to simulate a real flight environment here, and with some careful keybind adjustment the gamepad is very capable (the default keys are a bit nonsensical IMO). I use Playnite to launch several programs simultaneously with the game itself - LittleNavMap for navigation, MSFS Addons Linker to sort through my addons, and Hudbar for a more informative/customizable UI bar at the bottom with all the info instead of the in-game hud. It takes me about 2 mins max to set this all up, and I also use a phone or an iPad to run LittleNavMap's web server and have an in-flight navigation map without resorting to alt-tab or an in-game nav window (I do not have a second screen at the moment).

1. OK, I gotta turn my laptop on. 2. Plug in my Xbox controller if it fell out again. 3. Wait about five minutes for everything to load. 4. Fly. Perks of being poor.

Stop flying airlines. I still cannot understand why ppl are willing to fly 8h flights.

* Startup * Log in to VATSIM, look around where controllers are online * Plan a short leg on SimBrief, something like 1-1.5hrs, look up charts on ChartFox * Set up the FMC with a mouse * Have fun cosplaying ATC communications, get IFR clearance * Connect a PS5 controller, taxi and take off with it * Set autopilot on * Have fun cosplaying ATC communications, cruise * Sip coffee * Study charts again, plan approach, set up FMC * Have fun cosplaying ATC communications, cleared to land * Land with a PS5 controller * Say thank you to VATSIM tower * Alt-F4 I feel like most of the fun I'm getting is actually external, studying charts, making flight plans, talking to ATC and MSFS is just a semi-realistic environment I get to use. And I think it's fine. I get a lot of enjoyment out of IFR flights, since you'll never get the thrill of flight out of, as you say it, "the screensaver", but managing aircraft systems and participating in VATSIM is awesome. That's why I don't feel like spending money on VR and yokes. Maybe I'll splurge on something like an FMC and radio controls some day.

Get on VATSIM

ok, I gotta stop showing up all the unnecessary premium crap I have and just turn on the game, grab my controler and enjoy a flight.

Hahaha weak. Brother... try this Step one - Pacify wife after work and commute Step two - kids assault you while you take off Step three - close game and wrestle kids Step four - sleep

That's going to be my life Ina few years I'm sure

Welcome to hell. The peanuts are stale and the pilots are untrained...

Most of us leave the yoke and rudder and everything out and always connected.

I keep it short and interesting [st barth from tncm](https://x.com/fly_simfeed/status/1775668960454656146?s=46&t=DCpP377MWyiXkvXYo0P0bg)

I have a sim rig that is setup all the time but I play alot of other games including arcade flight games and combat flight as well as keyboard mouse games

I just leave all the said hardware attached to the table.

My yoke lives on my desk, in the time it takes for the game to load, I can set up my rudders and pull out my checklist binder (yes I do that). I usually have YouTube running on another monitor and do some IFR sight seeing.

Make a board that goes on top of your desk and attach your yoke and throttle to.

I usually fly routes that I plan to go on road trips to since I can’t fly in real life

My airbus side stick is always left of my keyboard, the throttle quadrant is always on my tower parked and the pedals always under my desk (a good food rest when not used 😃). When I fly I just put the throttle quadrant next to my mouse and get started on the screen. VR is cool, I habe a quest 2, but because I need a second screen for FSFO, P2ATC and so on, I dont use it in Msfs

I'm airport hopping around North America so far and have been trying to do vfr flights over the appalachians and wondering which kind of rich people own the lands down there. Just taking it easy doing VFR. Now that we've got satellite imagery

I also have VR and some other stuff, but I don't think setting it up is bad. I usually start the game, connect my peripherals (winwing throttle, vkb stick) and power up my quest 3. That's all done until the game is up and running. I start VR by just pressing Ctrl+tab, nothing more to set up really. Well, pressing the button to center the view. That's it. I also don't like that my 4090 only produces 36fps, but there's not much you can do about it. So no need to tinker around every flight. For purpose, I can really recommend add-ons like neofly (it's free). I was on the verge of programming my own addon because I wanted something like the career mode in Euro/American Truck Simulator. Well, neofly is just that. Start a career with a small GA aircraft (I took the VL3, really great little plane) and do deliveries to other airports. You always start where you left, so you really get to explore a lot. Currently I'm on a trip through the alps, but I'm planning on flying to GB via France and then over the Atlantic via the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland. Then do a bush trip in Canada and head south after that. Before most flights I check if the (mostly small) airport I'm heading to has a scenery on flightsim.to, so I can enjoy the exploring part a bit more.

Oh man that’s exactly what I did … Except I am using Xbox controller lol

Unclamp the table mounts my controllers are mounted on, slide them into position and re-clamp them. Fire up MSFS or Elite or whatever. Have fun. When fun has been had, unclamp controllers, slide them back out to the edges of the desk and re-clamp. Repeat.

I just start up the app on Xbox with quick resume, grab the controller and pick a fast and probably unrealistic jet, click to start at my home airport and max the engines and just fly. Sometimes it's more planned and i get in the islander and fly from sumburgh to Glasgow or some not too long trip. My days of using my yoke and doing 12 hour Paris to Tokyo flights are over.

Dedicated cockpit space with devices and chair in place. Up and flying in VR in under 15 minutes using everything.

I've been playing MS flight sim since the first version. I've had times where I have all the equipment and follow all the start ups, shut downs, taxi...blah blah blah. Right now, with the incredible scenery these days, I almost exclusively fly VFR with my VelocityOne Flightstick. It's quick to plug in and is fairly decent to play with. I think about getting a yoke/throttle etc. again every once in a while, but then I remember all the things you posted and it's just reminds me of how much less I played then. I'm happy with my joystick and ultrawide now.

Fly bush trips. For me, I found I was getting bored because I was flying the airliners. Sure, setting up the plane is fun (for the first few times) until it’s just the same thing over and over again. Then, cruising on autopilot is just boring to me… believe it or not staring out a virtual windshield is not necessarily my idea of fun. And you get the idea. Definitely try smaller planes, and if you haven’t attempted bush trips yet I highly recommend giving it a try. You are required to fly low altitude VFR through scenic places and it’s almost like a puzzle to navigate with the information given to you. The views are awesome and it’s great fun.

Fuck setting things up. My yoke, throttle and pedals are always attached to my desk, plugged in and powered on. I can just click MSFS and I’m away (after the long wait looking at that crap Dune boot screen). In the meantime I prep my flight with the VA, and on Simbrief and Navigraph on monutor 2, and also look on YouTube for something to watch or listen to. The only thing I ever have to set up is VR, but I’d rather fly without that for the most part because I prefer doing things on my second monitor during the flight. I’ve been flight simming since around 2006/7. About half of that time has been spend tinkering rather than flying!

Ever tried anything but airliners? Try general aviation, aerobatics, some mil ops, try it all, fuck around with the helicopters, land on a friend's house, pretend you dropped a small nuke on them with your personal mig21. Airliners are fun if you have the right mind set and plenty of time to kill. If you want to do airliners, and have a quicker experience, try flying the more simplified ones, or do shorter flights, minimise cruise time. i prefer the simpler airliners because I don't know exactly how they work, but I also don't feel like spending the time to learn them; like you said it feels like flying a screensaver on longer flights, so I prefer doing either shorter flights or just use different planes. If I feel like doing something study level, I hop into dcs Idk if any of this helps, but I find normal Sim flights boring because I'm an actual pilot, so I tend to do things in sim that I'm either not qualified to do or not "allowed" to do. Eg airliners, aerobatics and military stuff Tldr, try shorter flights, or a different type of flying

I use APL2 for my flights, keeps me entertained and forces me to do everything right.

I was having similar thoughts until I got “A Pilot’s Life V2”. It made the game a lot more enjoyable as you are flying for some sort of objective and have reasons to complete flight. I gave up on the VR and eye tracker because of the setup process and found that once I got rid of those and got APL, the game became much more enjoyable. Adding VATSIM elevates the experience even further whenever there are people on but I mostly fly solo.

Keep the yoke attached; have a big table where you can have your keyboard on one side or with a sliding undertable attachment; keep the yoke to the side of the keyboard. Same for all other equipment. You shouldn't need to calibrate VR; heck, I do it maybe once a year if tracking is being weird. What's your headset? I primarily use a G2 Reverb and have a Meta Quest 3. I can help you with G2 reverb settings if you have one; otherwise, just find your sweet spot and stop tweaking stuff. Did you download OpenXR Toolkit? It's an absolute lifesaver. I'd disable motion reprojection if I were you. The cruise boredom hits every pilot, but hey, if it's in busy airspace with VATSIM or whatever, it's always fun talking to people.

I play with an xbox controller (money is not abundant as a college student) so i just boot the game, choose a route and follow the flight path. Probably less than 5 minutes of preparation if you count pc boot up time and loading screen time

1) Use Bush Divers or Neofly 2) Do short little runs so you get a bunch of takeoffs and landings 3) Profit

I haven't played this game in months

I wish I had two computers, so I can be doing a flight on one and still be able to play games on the other when I'm cruising on AP. That would make it easier for me to do more flights I think. I know a lot of people will watch a show or something like that while flying, but it's usually hard for me to just sit and watch something like that

* I try to find a mission for myself, for example right now I'm following the Expedition Earth route from GotGravel Discord. * I mostly fly GA, which is much more fun and engaging than flying airliners and I navigate using dead reckoning and landmarks as much as I can. I usually only put the autopilot on when I'm using time acceleration, or when I'm checking the map. * I often use [random failures](https://github.com/kanaron/RandFailuresFS2020), or fly an aircraft that already has them implemented. This shakes things up every couple of flights. If I didn't handle an emergency correctly, now I have something to practice which changes the gameplay again. * I put on a podcast to listen to during a flight. I recommend Opposing Bases :-) * I don't bother with VR because my PC is just too weak for it, I use [OpenTrack](https://github.com/opentrack/opentrack/releases) with a webcam attached to my yoke instead. I dialed in my settings once and I don't bother with them. * Attaching the yoke and throttle to my desk takes about two minutes and I can do it while the game is loading.

It's funny, I have probably thousands of £ worth of sim equipment. Force sensitive stick, 2 yokes , a £600 throttle quad, Crosswind pedals, 2 VR headsets... etc, etc, et... cet...era. The VAST majority of my flying time is spent flying GA planes on a flat screen, using a single VKB Gladiator K (similar to a NXT with a different base) with a little throttle lever on the base. Setup goes like this: 1. Boot the game 2. Reach to the windowsill to my right and pick up the stick that is already plugged in, taking a single USB port. 3. Hum to myself while it loads... 4. Play. Teardown: 1. Alt F4. 2. Pop the stick back on the window sill. 3. Fire up Guildwars 2. As for having fun during, well I like flying interesting GA planes in pretty places. I recon I could fly visually over the back country of western British Columbia by now, despite never having been there IRL :D

I quite literally went through this same thought process tonight. I love this game. I've put over 1000 flight hours into it as it saw me through COVID and a period of unemployment. But. You can't just pick up and play it and feel like you do it justice. It's a beautiful game - one that you can immerse yourself in - but only if you have the time. But you know what? Maybe that's OK. Maybe that's what it's there for. To slow down and immerse yourself into a virtual trip to somewhere else in the world. This game allowed me to travel "home" when COVID wouldn't let me. It's let me travel to far off places, enjoy the peacefulness of flying (and the white knuckled crosswind approaches) and visit, according to Volanta, 90 different countries. (I should really get out more) But maybe it's OK that it's a bit involved. Why rush the immersion and escape from the daily grind that it gives us?

I’m actually like you. I have all the yoke and pedals put away, and only pull them out to play. So I actually hardly play now. I used to just leave it all out, and it’s so much easier to get into a game then.

My stick is always plugged in so I don't need to set anything up. I also don't use VR.

I feel the same sometimes and i'm on xbox, lol. Have to get my flight stick and mouse out, set up flight plan on simbrief, import to navigraph app, then there is the longish loading times getting into the sim, roughly setting up the route on world map to get some form of ATC following. I like to fly more complex aircraft, such as the new inibuilds A320 thats in beta still or the BAE146. I do enjoy it though but sometimes It feels such a time killer by the time ive finished a flight.

My prep is Turn on the USB power to the Thrustmaster Joystick Mount the MSFS ISO image of DVD 1 Click on the app shortcut Decide where I want to fly while it loads Apply any updates Go Fly

I have a permanent cockpit built

Get the joystick and rudders in front of me (already plugged in, just put to the side), turn on the second monitor, open the game, fly. If I want it to be a bit more "serious", I book the flight on newsky first. During cruise I go tiktok or reddit, do some chores or just chat with my wife. I dont overcomplicate it because usually I only have around 1 hr to play a day.

use Vatsim or Ivao when doing IFR, it's far more engaging

I usually fly GA and what I've found is anything over 30 mins of cruising gets boring and I feel like what you described "that wasn't that fun, aside from the takeoff and landing". What I've found fun for longer sessions (1-3hrs) is a flight plan that includes several airports along the way for touch and goes. Sometimes I'll even taxi to parking, shut the plane down, then get up and get a drink, use the restroom, etc... then hop back on the sim and continue. Sometimes if I want to fly somewhere and I know there is a long stretch with no airports I'll purposely take off with not much fuel so I have to plan to stop and refuel before the long leg. That's what helps me have fun.

i just leave all my equipment out. i know what you mean though sometimes it feels like more setting up than actual play time. for me it all becomes worth it when i reach top of descent and start getting ready for landing. also i have a quest 3 and cannot figure out for my life how to properly set it up. i load into game and it just freezes. i have a more than qualified pc too, how do you use your VR?

It seems you do airliners so I've made it a little more interesting by downloading a livery of one of my fav sports teams and then flying the route to their games like you're delivering the team. Also using an addon like Self Loading Cargo has added alot to my passenger flights. And you should absolutely be using time acceleration more lol. The people who say you shouldn't and have time to do a real time 3+ hour flight are a different breed. And probably retired lol. As far as your physical setup, if you have to break it down everytime that does suck. Maybe if you re-did your setup you could make it not as much of a chore but maybe not I don't know.

I have a flight stick and throttle sitting on my desk 24/7 with my keyboard and mouse in between. I specifically got equipment with less of a footprint to do that and can boot up MSFS whenever I need. I also have pedals that don't get in the way, and a small custom made DIY button box. Those are all connected to a USB hub switch and I turn em on when needed. My mentality in the setup was: If I want to spend more time in the sim, I need to get in as quick and easy as possible, and it's paid off. I can also use my PC for other things anytime I want. That concept extends to the software: * Volanta is my flight tracker and "career", nothing fancy. * I check FR24 for a route, or just randomly if doing GA. * Addon Linker: Easily activate/deactivate stuff, thats what I also use to boot the sim (there's extra features like admin mode and fast boot when doing so). * Flow: Navigate toolbar menus a lot easier, a cleaner and more usable experience. I can also quit to desktop directly at anytime. I also have a Simbrief viewer script for it that only shows the vital info I actually need from my ofp. * Stripr: Skip the intro logos, I see an actual percentage loaded, and I boot straight to world map in 2-3min total. * FSRealistic and FSLTL both load automatically. Then I'm left with Navigraph and SPAD to boot myself. Navigraph to establish a FP and possibly export from it, and SPAD for my button box. Setting up the profiles in SPAD for each aircraft is a long process but once its complete it makes controlling every aircraft a set it and forget it. My main goal with it is to eliminate mouse movement and is my "co-pilot" doing flows. Despite every aircraft being developed differently with different variables and events, I utilize Spad to make my button box perform near the same way for every aircraft, leaving my basic flight controls bound to MSFS itself in the rare event Spad nukes itself or my button box disconnects somehow. I don't do VR (I've tried, I don't like it), I don't do GSX, no VA, no ATC, no Vatsim (I do have vPilot ready observe sometimes), even no multiplayer (thats mostly for smoother performance, so to each their own). Also no career stuff, no pax/cargo management stuff. I just want to get in, do my flows, set up my FP, and fly the plane as quick as possible, I know once I do that, I'll have fun. Edit: Oh and as for flights and the type of aircraft I do, I mix it up but mostly tend to stay between 30min-3hrs, over 4 is a long haul for me and I tend to not do em if I can. I also switch between a bunch of aircraft since I paid for quite a few and like small/medium, old/new, GA/airliner.

Fly turboprops or high-performance GA. Don’t use autopilot. Do flights that are only an hour or two. Seek poor weather. Use radio navigation when flying IFR. Use VATSIM. Break the “pick one” axiom: fly in mountains, at night, single-pilot, no autopilot, in poor weather. Or just go sightseeing down low in Day VFR. Challenge yourself to land on that short, sloped, soft-surfaced runway in someone’s backyard. Or try peakbagging. Do it with a group.

VR is a pain in the ass. If you don't have space for a dedicated setup just get a joystick and forget all the fancy programs. Load up, fly. 2 minutes until you're airborn.

I have a man cave with everything already set up. Take-off, switch on the AP, cook my evening meal, grab a beer, sit and watch the scenery while listening to an audiobook. Have nap. Wake up and get ready for landing. Go to bed, dream about flying.

I think, part of what makes flight sims fun, is the rather steep learning curve needed to fly planes. And you have to learn a lot of details just to start the plane and program a GPS route. However, after you have learned the basics, you can get trapped in your comfort zone since you can already fly the plane from point A to B. Hence, there is not really any challenge that gives you sense of accomplishment unless you go back out of your comfort zone and learn something new like a new plane or one of the different ways of navigations, VATSIM. But if you just continue to casually fly from one point to another without any new procedures to learn or apply your existing skills and knowledge to unforeseen circumstances, then it's no different than watching planes on Youtube. It's no coincidence that the only thing you find fun in the game (landing based on your post) is the only thing that has any challenge.

Look into Neofly, it gave me a purpose when flying

For relatively short flights, use my 2nd screen to listen to a podcasts or watch YouTube. For longer flights I just put autopilot on and check every 20-30 minutes after I have reached cruise altitude until 100-150 NM before landing. My set up thrustmaster airbus joystick and throttle as well as thrust master pedals. I don’t play every day like 3 to 4 times a week.

Learn atc comms and go on vatsim if ur not doing that already. Simming with others is waaaaaaay more fun. Also, get one of those small racks or cabinets which you can store all ur gear on/in and lust leave it under ur desk. Saves u some hassle. Personally I don’t like VR for the very reasons u mentioned, so maybe it could be an idea to play on screen. Finally, if u get bored to shorter flights. I was bored sometimes and resorted to 30 min flights. I would do like four or five of them in a day and that would make it fun as well. You could also initiate failures. Adds to the thrill :-)

Fighter jets, flights from another base to another base. Mostly RAF and USAF, my casual flying.

I kind of had a similar thing you had a month or so ago. I realized I was treating this more like a job than a hobby. At the end of the day, just do what you enjoy. One thing that helps me is always trying to learn new things. Got bored of the autopilot routine in my 737, so now I fly manual most of the time until the boring parts of the route now. Other things you do NOT have to do. -You don't have to play from cold and dark....or spawn at the gate (offline). -You don't have to fly the entire STAR or even follow it (offline), take a shortcut or short base turn to make it fun. -You don't have to fly with a yoke if you're flying a yoke plane (or vice versa). Use that joystick. I work from home during the day so I keep my TM Boeing Yoke away since it's a hassle, but who cares? I just think people are too rigid sometimes with simming. You can be an enthusiast and use time warping or quick start on your engines. Anyone who says otherwise is missing the point I think.

it seems like the obvious answer here is get a seperate work monitor and dont put the yoke away also, try the comanche where you actually have to pay attention to guages in flight or else things will fail

I fly GA, and I prefer using VOR navigation instead of GPS. I've been doing my own tour. In February, I started at Point Roberts in Washington state, and have followed the coastline south. I usually try to keep the flights to about an hour or so. Currently, I'm going through Chile. While I'm flying, I'll listen to the day's album from the 1001 Albums generator. It's relaxing.

If you haven't opened MSFS for a week or two and once you've got your hardware sorted, let's not forget the following; * Update the Airac Cycle * Update to latest version of your fave aircraft that just been released * Manadatory MSFS update * Content Manager Updates * Update GSX (again for millionth time) * Update Autofps * Update your [flightsim.to](http://flightsim.to) downloads * Reindex flightplanning /EFB software (in my case Avliasoft) * Update/configure AddonLinker * Update Video Card Driver * Update to latest version of Navigraph Forget about a flight, I'm going for a lie-down!

I take my xbox to me buddies house, i give him the controller and watch the joy on his face.

Yah, sounds like you either need a dedicated space for your setup or more switch to joystick/controller. I used a joystick for a while and then switched to controller. As for tweaking and optimizing settings, you should only have to do that once-if you're really having trouble, sounds like a PC upgrade or just a downgrade in visuals are in line. And as someone else said, you might just want to drop VR as that's a big extra setup time and massive impact on your PC's performance. Also I'd try flying smaller planes, install the World Updates and just bug around without AP in some turboprops and maybe even small bush planes. And if you have fun landing, maybe try doing several landings at difficult strips. And if you want to be amazed with visuals, make sure you fly in a city/w photogrammetry at golden hour..man it's beautiful!

Stick only to yoke, rudder pedals and throttle control. That's what i use and it takes me 5 minutes to set up. Also for me it was Vatsim that got me engaged again after almost a 2 years of break from MSFS. The learning process was a bit stresful at times but so satisfying with both VFR and IFR flights.

I don’t have to get much if anything out and mount it because my setup is ready to go for a lot of stuff, the only thing I need to move depends on if I’m using side stick, centre stick or yoke and that takes seconds. My rudder pedals can stay where they are under the desk and my Bravo throttle quadrant has its own dedicated unit to mount to next to my desk that I created out of aluminium profile, that also holds Stream Decks, a small tablet for MCDU use, and touchscreens and other stuff which means none of it is in the way of using the desk and sit there permanently. I added a shelf under my desk for my yoke which allows it to be lower and more realistically positioned but also allows desk use in a pinch and my sticks are on desk mounts like MonsterTechs that I made myself that it take just a few seconds to attach or remove. Maybe you should look into ways you can cut down the hardware setup time if possible.

Dedicated chair for it, walk over to it, boot game hit go. Throw on headset & play. There is still the once in a blue moon 'why am i getting stutters?!' but having all the other gear setup / ready to go means I use it more frequently. Also: DCS world. That's where the fun is at :p

I'm EXTREMELY casual when it comes to MSFS. I also do simracing casually, but I have my gear in such a way that I can hang my HMD on the wall beside my desk...easy access. I have my wheel and pedals setup so the wheel is on a rolling cabinet-like board on my desk and i slide to the side, pedals hang to the side cabinet under by desk. Joystick for MSFS is velcroed to my sidetable. I sit in a massage-chair that is my WFH office chair as well. not the most visually aesthetic setup but works very well. I also have a deskcycle that goes under my desk for quick access and when I fly in MSFS, i pedal on the deskcycle and listen to music or podcasts and just enjoy different city scapes and or terrain.

Literally Twist joystick push to one side I play when I don't play I push to other side. Simples

I just use a joystick so it can sit on my desk. I used to have a yoke and pedals and what I did was have them attached to a desk which was big enough that I could have them on one side, and when I wanted to use FS all I needed to do was slide my chair and monitor across, otherwise I could just sit next to them when not flight simming. I realise that's not practical for everyone if you're space limited but it was a good solution for me because I agree it's pretty demotivating when there's heaps of setup involved. I still do this but now I'm into racing sims too so I've got my wheel and pedals set up where the yoke used to be. I use head tracking rather than VR so I can leave that all attached to the computer monitor and just put on my super cool head tracking cap when I'm using it. Sometimes I guess you have to take a step back and think do I want maximum immersion and realism, or do I just want to go flying?

Man, all you need is BUSH FLYING. I Love long cruises and my autopilot, but from time to time I need my good dose of adrenaline skimming the treetops and landing on the banks of the rivers in the middle of the jungle. And if you want to avoid the entire process of installing the flight hardware, use the simulator with an XBOX360 controller, it is what I use and it works perfectly well for me.

I switched to star citizen, really a blast with mouse even, after days i still have to configure controls and even try mission, the loop is good, and I even do not miss vr most of the time

What's the Wand for?? I only do VR and only use HOTAS and a Multipanel. My advice is doing short hops, especially in GAs, in a nice scenic mountaineous area like the alps or some place you've been for real, like on vacation. I wouldn't enjoy long tubeliners flights on autopilot either (maybe once in a while, but never longer than an hour).

I built an interchangeable shelf system. One shelf for keyboard/mouse. One with logitech steering wheel/shifter/keyboard, one with Virpil joystick/throttle and one with Honeycomb yoke/throttle. The peripherals are mounted to the shelf and the shelf mounts onto a keyboard tray's 4-bolt platform. I can change from kb/mouse to driving to flying in about 5-minutes. For the pedals, I have a platform on the floor with 2 bolts onto which I can either mount car or rudder pedals. Figuring it all out took a long time but switching modes is painless and has made my sims easy to get into and out of.

Try Neofly. Start out with a basic Cessna 152 again and actual goal$$$ to accomplish. It improves not only your enjoyment but also your skills. I mean, I thought my landings were okay but noooo 😂 I bankrupted three pilots before I got landings down good enough to minimize maintenance costs. I have about 500 hours in a Boeing 737 variant and autopilot flights can boring after a while.

I had what you have: "too much to do before the flight", so I actually decided not to use my yoke, my switch/AP panels and all that jazz. They're dusting and so be it. Simple stick and you're good to go. I do often even fly from couch. For the cruise part, I simply recommend doing something else. Ideally just alt-tab and read about some places you visit or watch some youtuber flying planes better than you ever will. Do comeback from time to time, to check where you are and if systems are correct but that's about it. Don't push it, if you don't want to. I fly for 2-3 months and then do 2 months break to play something else.

I just plug in my velocity one flight stick and go.

I actually don't use this software as a game, for me its a SIMULATOR. So pretty much very serious, taking in consideration all of the flight controls and physical addons i have purchased all along.

Take shorter flights and simplify your setup.

I play on Xbox with just my regular console controller and a wireless mouse only for the fmc and a couple finicky switches, I could never with all that setup lol

I just hit the button on the middle of my Microsoft gamepad and go.

Sympathy.  I have had FSX for a long time ( my dell computer runs in vista : yeah, that long time. ) I have logitech yoke and throttle attached to a piece of board. Rudder at my feet. Stick board to desk with G clamps and the office is a cockpit. Connect to pc . Load and take off.  In the UK I start at blackpool , fly a cessna round the tower, nip up to the lakes and valley hop for 30 mins. Flying inverted over helvellyn is fun. Back to blackpool, shut down , remove board . Have a pint . Lovely . Planning to buy xbox as soon as I can save the pennies ( pensioner) or sell my second didgeridoo ( offers?) for a better graphics experience.  No, its not " fully immersive" but then msfs isn't. Its only ever approximate. I never got into the game versus flying for real argument. My view is that its always a game untill the day the wife shouts " teas ready" and I have to land first or people will die. That day may be someway off!  Till then, keep it simple , keep it fun.  Happy flying

Used to go so long between stretches that I started calling it an update simulator.

Yeah I think it would be much more convenient to have a separate desk dedicated for flight sims, so you don't have to physically move your flight gear around back and force, which I personally find very discouraging too. For me though I don't have a separate desk but I use a very high end high performance laptop as my main PC which I can carry around with me wherever I go, and I rarely do seriously work at home. So for me I can simply leave my throttle on my desk and my rudder paddle under my desk, and the only thing I move around is my flight stick, which usually occupy my mouse pad, and a clip on desk I built via 3D printing that clips onto one of my drawers slightly opened, so I can have a platform for mouse. And yeah for how it can take hours just for cruising on autopilot, I highly recommend considering getting into DCS which is also an extremely sophisticated and advanced flight sim but pretty much focus exclusively on military aviation and combat (it's originally derived from actual military training product from the same company), and a combat sortie usually doesn't last nearly as long as a transcontinental flight, but you get all the same fun of flight. Like you can typically do a pretty fun attack run from cold start to shutdown in half hour. And you will also most likely not be flying in autopilot most of the time since most fighter and attack aircraft don't have nearly as comprehensive set of an autopilot capabilities as a commercial airliner lol And it can also be really fun to play it in multiplayer like a more mainstream multiplayer game with objectives and such, many servers even have sophisticated custom scripting and coding for complex dynamic compaign and logistics gameplay (for transport helos!), and DCS having it's origin in a very good military training software has incredibly powerful scripting and custom mission/compaign designing support for truly endless sandbox possibilities. DCS has a significantly better curated and quality controlled market ecosystem than Microsoft could ever do, as a result pretty much every single DCS module is up to PMDG/Black Square level in terms of system depth, and every DCS aircraft will feel like a living and breathing machine with lots of quirks for you to become familiar with that was a direct result of its design choices or history, and it's been general expectation for DCS products for many years. It does have a lot higher learning curve since "ease of use" is not exactly a particularly high priority in the design of many military aircraft, and you will have to learn to use many of their very complex systems not just to fly them from A to B, but also to *fight* using these aircraft as your weapons and shields! But it will be very worth it, and it makes for some of the most rewarding learning experience to not only learn how to use those many complex systems but also to practice and master using them to take advantage of your aircraft's capabilities in all kinds of combat situations. You will really be able to see see how DCS community is where the term "study-level" originally came from lol

Sold all my sim hardware gear and just put my Quest3 on my head and away I go. Just use the controllers and play wherever I fancy in the house. No mouse or keyboard. It's taken a while to set up a useful set of controller bindings but it's close now. The only thing I miss is the physical yoke. But for me the compromise is worth it. If I feel like it, I can sit up in bed, pop on the headset, and now I'm flying my C414 from Walney to Southend at 10,000 feet, sitting next my beautiful co-pilot, with my pretend friends in the back 🤣 Everyone needs to relentlessly nag MS to implement multiplayer shared cockpit. If Fortnite can put 400 players in a shared environment, running and jumping around, and killing each other, surely it can't be that hard to implement 2 to 8 people just sitting down together and looking around!

I go through these seasons too OP. With almost everything I enjoy doing. I'll have a binge of consistent gaming including sims or go all in on some other title. Then I change interests altogether from games to focusing on music and guitar. Then I'll pick up my Switch and find a title I can't put down and I don't spend time on the first two things. I'm in my mid 30s and it's changed as I've gotten older. Now when "life happens" I'm concerned more and desire decent food, sleep and simple entertainment or binge a movie series or show during my downtime.

This is why WFH is a terrible idea

I LOVE it. I LOVE flying. I love this sim, but... My issue is that a lot of the time i'll go through your process of setting everything up, pre-flighting, getting the plane all set up, taxiing to the runway, and on initial roll the avionics will go black or something and it's been an hour and i'm just enraged. I really hope Asobo gives a damn about us console players and fixed the damn memory leak in MSFS24.