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This VR Flight Sim is Terrifyingly Immersive – VTOL VR

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A YouTuber straps into a cockpit that has no joystick, no throttle handle, and no HOTAS setup — just his own hands.

On July 5, 2020, military sim creator Andrew Carriker — known to his audience as OperatorDrewski — posted a 38-minute gameplay video titled “This VR Flight Sim is Terrifyingly Immersive – VTOL VR.” The video walks through carrier launches, high-G dogfights, and missile evasion in VTOL VR, a virtual-reality combat flight simulator that ditches traditional flight hardware in favor of tracked motion controllers players use to physically flip switches inside the cockpit.

• OperatorDrewski’s video, published July 5, 2020, runs 38 minutes and covers carrier operations, dogfighting, weapons deployment, and dodging surface-to-air missiles.
• VTOL VR was built by Boundless Dynamics, LLC, headed by developer Paolo Encarnacion (online as BahamutoD), and first hit Steam Early Access on August 3, 2017.
• The game is designed exclusively for VR headsets with motion controllers, letting players manually flip switches, work the MFDs, and arm countermeasures instead of relying on a physical HOTAS setup.

Setting the Record Straight on Who Built It

A persistent claim floating around online credits VTOL VR to Alex “Poly” Madrzyk, a former Air Force F-16 and F-22 pilot. That’s not accurate. The game was built by Boundless Dynamics, LLC, with development led by Paolo Encarnacion — known in the indie sim and mod scene as BahamutoD. There’s no fighter-pilot pedigree behind the project; it’s an independent VR studio effort that landed on Steam Early Access on August 3, 2017 and has been iterated on since.

No HOTAS, Just Hands

What separates VTOL VR from PC flight sims like DCS World or Falcon BMS is the total absence of a required physical stick or throttle. Everything is built around tracked motion controllers. Players reach into the cockpit and physically grab the flight stick, push the throttle forward, flip toggle switches, and dial in settings on the multifunction displays — no keyboard binds, no external hardware.

That design choice is the entire pitch of the sim. Instead of memorizing a HOTAS layout, pilots have to learn where every switch physically lives inside the cockpit, the same way a real aviator would run a checklist by touch and muscle memory.

VTOL VR launched into Steam Early Access on August 3, 2017 — and three years later, the only hardware you need to fly it is your own hands.

Inside Drewski’s Sortie

OperatorDrewski’s video spends its 38 minutes moving through the kind of scenarios that make VR flight sims genuinely tense rather than just visually impressive. He runs carrier launches, works through high-G dogfights, deploys weapons manually, and has to dodge surface-to-air missile threats in real time — all while managing cockpit instruments by hand instead of a HUD shortcut.

That combination is what Drewski frames as “terrifyingly immersive” in the video’s title: the tactile workload of flying the jet doesn’t pause just because a missile is inbound. Players have to juggle countermeasures, throttle control, and situational awareness simultaneously, the same layered stress that makes sims like Why Metro Exodus is so Immersive stand out for their attention to sensory detail rather than raw spectacle.

VR Simulation Impact and Benefits

VTOL VR arrives in a genre where VR still struggles to prove it’s more than a novelty layered onto existing games. A cockpit sim built from the ground up for motion controllers — where the physical act of flipping a switch is the interface — is a different proposition than strapping a headset onto a game designed for a monitor. It’s the same leap that made Half Life Alyx (3) is OUT & it’s AMAZING! a benchmark for what VR-native design can look like when a studio isn’t just porting an existing control scheme onto a headset.

Drewski’s video was one entry in a long run of tactical and military-sim content on his channel, and VTOL VR’s Early Access status means Boundless Dynamics is still adding to the sim rather than treating it as finished. For anyone who watched the 38 minutes and wants in, the barrier to entry is a VR headset with tracked controllers — no separate flight stick required.