Well, darn. The new-ish Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 was ported and released on the PS5 …in late 2025 …which is almost 2026, so you figure that one out?

But anyhow.

I, like a fool, bought it and now I’m trying to rekindle my virtual flying madskillz to set off on another adventure in and around this slightly updated simulated virtual earth. Where will I go this time?

Alas… and for those who were not paying attention during the pandemic of 2020, one of my “locked in the basement” projects involved splurging on a copy of MSFS 2020 (the previous release to this one) but on my PC. I bought a joystick “flight stick” and customized a little Cessna plane and set off from Edmonton west in an attempt to fly around the globe. I didn’t make it. Strangely enough after flying to the west coast and up to Alaska, then Russia, I found my way to Japan, and…

Well.

It was a combination of summer arriving (as if on schedule), a well-intentioned game patch causing an issue with the playability of my particular installation, and then mostly me overworking myself trying to record and log every leg of the flight adventure… and so I parked my little plane in Osaka or something (I don’t actually remember, but close to there anyhow) and we never left. As far as I know my imaginary pilot has settled into a life of eating delicious street Takoyaki, married to a nice girl all while he struggles to improve his Japanese awaiting his gamer guy to return and whisk him off to continue the flying adventure.

Jokes on him.

My new little virtual pilot, Bardo, has spawned to life in MS2024 on my PS5 and has set off on a clumsy flight of a similar ilk to the cut-short flights of 2020 Lazy Joe—though I’m feeling a bit lazier and so the notion of rigorously recording on the PS5 (which is decidedly clunkier for long videos) does not appeal this time, so his adventures will be far less fulsomely documented.

We set off once again in a new Cessna and this time flew south, first to Red Deer Regional and then on another hop down through a snowy afternoon storm to Calgary International. Alas, this poor new guy had a bit of a rough landing in both situations because (as good as the sim is) the control scheme is a little more touchy on my console controller (versus that steady-as-heck joystick.) I may need to figure that problem out before we keep travelling… but I digress.

There are missions and challenges baked into MSFS2024, but that all seems a little touristy and I have this notion of keeping the adventure going leg by leg, treating the sim as if Bardo is actually (as I write this) sitting in the pilot’s lounge in the hangar at YYC waiting for some mechanic to sign off on the fix to whatever damage I caused listening to the landing advice from the AI co-pilot (which on another side note is weirdly another Microsoft product unrelated to flight simulator… hmm… maybe that’s why it’s advice nearly caused me to crash on a mile long runway in the easiest plane, huh?)

Nevermind. We’re off once again.

This is the first entry in my flight log as Bardo takes to the open air and sets off on a new adventure. Maybe if I make it all the way to Japan again he’ll check up on Joe… or join him. Either way, I’ve got myself a new game-slash-project and you, dear readers, better settle in.