Your First Flight Sim Setup: What to Buy First for MSFS 2024

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 did something the hobby has not seen in years: it made the front door wide. Hundreds of thousands of people loaded a Cessna, wobbled into the air on a gamepad, and immediately asked the same question. What do I actually buy first?

Here is the honest answer, built from the way real cockpits get assembled — one piece at a time, in the right order. I will give you three concrete builds. Spend at the tier that matches how serious you already know you are, and ignore everything above it for now.

Start with the controller you already own

You do not need to spend a dollar to start flying. An Xbox controller or any gamepad works in MSFS 2024, and with the assistance options turned up, you can fly a respectable circuit. This is not a throwaway phase. Fly the gamepad for a week. It tells you, cheaply, whether you lean toward puttering around in general aviation (GA) piston aircraft or toward big tube-liners. That single decision shapes every purchase after it.

The gamepad’s ceiling is real, though. Throttle on a trigger or stick has no detents and no resolution, and pitch trim on a d-pad is misery. When precise approaches start feeling like a fight against the hardware rather than the airplane, it is time for the first real device.

Build 1 — The $150 “get airborne properly” cockpit

The single best first upgrade is a combined yoke-and-throttle device. The Logitech G PRO Flight Yoke System (around $130-150) is the default pick: a self-centering yoke plus a separate three-lever throttle quadrant in one box. It is plastic, the older pots can wear over years of use, and it will not impress a cockpit builder. None of that matters when you are learning. It gives you a proper pitch-and-roll yoke, real throttle resolution, and a fistful of buttons for trim and flaps.

For airliner-leaning newcomers, the alternative is the Thrustmaster TCA Sidestick Airbus Edition (around $80-100), a 1:1 A320 side-stick with contactless magnetic sensors. Pair it later with the matching quadrant. If you are an Xbox flyer rather than PC, the Turtle Beach VelocityOne Flight Stick (around $100-130) is a yoke/stick hybrid with an integrated twist rudder, toe-brake rockers, and a small status display.

At this tier you do not buy pedals. Every device here has a twist or rocker rudder axis, and it is plenty for early flying.

Build 2 — The $300 “I’m committed to GA” cockpit

This is where most people who stick with the hobby end up within a few months. The anchor is the Honeycomb Alpha Flight Controls Yoke (around $250-280). It is a 180-degree steel-shaft yoke with proper self-centering feel and an integrated switch and ignition panel right on the base — master, avionics, lights, and a five-position magneto/ignition knob. That panel alone removes a dozen mouse-clicks from every flight.

Run the Alpha alongside the throttle quadrant you already own from Build 1, or a cheap standalone quadrant, and add a set of rudder pedals when budget allows. Hold off on the premium throttle for now; the Alpha by itself transforms GA flying, and you will know exactly what you want next.

Build 3 — The $500 enthusiast standard

The Honeycomb Alpha + Bravo bundle (around $500) is the most-recommended GA cockpit in the hobby, and for good reason. The Bravo Throttle Quadrant (around $250-300 on its own) brings six swappable levers — single-lever GA, dual and quad commercial — plus a genuine autopilot panel, an annunciator panel, a trim wheel, and a gear lever. Together the Alpha and Bravo cover the vast majority of what a GA or light-twin pilot touches, in hardware, without diving into menus.

This is the build I point most newcomers toward if they already know flight sim is going to stick. It scales: the natural next step is the Honeycomb Charlie rudder pedals to complete the matched three-piece deck. I walk through that staged path in detail in the GA cockpit upgrade path.

The three builds at a glance

When rudder pedals actually matter

The most common beginner overspend is buying pedals on day one. You do not need them to learn. The twist axis on your yoke or stick handles taxiing and gentle yaw fine for months.

The moment to buy pedals is specific: when you start flying crosswind landings, when taxiing a taildragger, or when the twist motion starts cross-coupling your roll inputs in the flare. That is your cue. When it comes, see the best rudder pedals for 2026 — the Logitech Flight Rudder Pedals (around $130-160) with toe brakes are the standard budget answer.

Who should skip all of this

Be honest with yourself. If you have flown the gamepad for two evenings and already feel done, do not spend $500 on a yoke that will become a shelf ornament. There is no shame in flying on a controller forever — plenty of people do, and MSFS 2024’s assistance modes are built for exactly that. Hardware rewards repetition. Buy it when you have proven to yourself that you keep coming back.

And if you already know your future is a Boeing or Airbus glass cockpit, do not start with a GA yoke at all. Your path runs through a side-stick or airliner yoke and an FMC, not the Alpha. The funnel splits early, and buying the wrong half is the expensive mistake.

The verdict

For nearly every new MSFS 2024 pilot leaning toward general aviation, the answer is a staircase, not a leap. Start free on the gamepad, move to a ~$150 combined yoke-and-throttle the moment precision matters, and graduate to the Honeycomb Alpha + Bravo bundle once you know flight sim has its hooks in you. Add pedals only when a specific maneuver demands them. If you want help mapping a full build to your budget before you spend, run it through the Rig Configurator — then buy the next single piece, fly it until you have outgrown it, and let the cockpit grow under you.

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