V-Speeds Explained: What Vx, Vy, Vfe and the Rest Actually Mean

If you've searched "V-speeds explained" after squinting at the coloured arcs on your airspeed indicator, the letters aren't explained anywhere in the sim itself, so the confusion isn't you missing something obvious. Here's what each one means, in roughly the order you'd meet them on a normal flight, and why it's worth learning them properly even though nothing bad happens if you ignore them on a screen.

What a V-speed actually is

"V" stands for velocity. Each V-speed is a specific airspeed that matters for a specific reason: a limit you shouldn't cross, or a target you're trying to hit. They aren't arbitrary. Every one comes from testing on the real aircraft type and is printed in its Pilot's Operating Handbook. The coloured arcs on your airspeed indicator are a shorthand for some of them, so you can see at a glance whether you're in safe territory without reading a number off the dial.

The speeds you'll actually use

Vso and Vs1 are the stall speeds, in landing configuration and clean configuration respectively. They sit at the bottom of the white and green arcs. Fly slower than this and the wing stops flying, so everything else on the dial is built around staying comfortably above it.

Vfe is maximum flap extended speed, the top of the white arc. Put the flaps out above this and you risk damaging them. Nothing will visibly break in MSFS, but flying it this way builds the wrong habit for anyone who later touches a real aircraft.

Vno is maximum structural cruising speed, the top of the green arc. Above it you should only fly in smooth air. It isn't a hard limit so much as a "throttle back if it gets bumpy" line.

Vne is never exceed speed, the red line at the top of the dial, and this one really is absolute. Past it, airframe flutter and structural damage become a real risk on the real aircraft.

Vx and Vy are the two everyone mixes up. Vx is best angle of climb, the speed that gains the most altitude over the shortest ground distance, which is what you want climbing out over an obstacle. Vy is best rate of climb, the speed that gains the most altitude per minute, which is what you want the rest of the time. Fly Vx for longer than you need and you're just climbing slower for no benefit, since it trades rate for angle rather than beating Vy at Vy's own job.

Va is manoeuvring speed: the fastest speed at which full, abrupt control deflection won't overstress the airframe. It drops as the aircraft gets lighter, which is why POHs give a range rather than one fixed number. Turbulence and abrupt inputs are exactly when it matters.

Vr is rotation speed, the point on the takeoff roll where you ease back and let the aircraft fly itself off the ground. Pull too early and you're hauling it into the air below flying speed; too late and you're eating runway you don't get back.

Best glide speed doesn't always get a V-designation in GA handbooks, but it works the same way: the speed that gives you the most distance for the altitude you've got if the engine quits. It's the one number worth having memorised cold, sim or not.

All of them on one card. The definitions are the same in every aircraft; the numbers come from your type's handbook:

Why bother getting this right in a simulator

Nothing on your desk fails structurally if you fly an MSFS Cessna at 140 knots with the flaps hanging out, so it's tempting to treat V-speeds as trivia. The habit is the point, though: fly Vy on every climb-out, respect Va in bumpy air, brief your Vr before every takeoff, and those numbers stop being something you look up and start being something you just know for that aircraft, in that configuration, without thinking about it. That's the skill that actually transfers, not the airframe.

It also makes you a sharper pilot inside the sim on its own terms. An aircraft flown at the right speeds climbs cleanly, handles predictably, and lands where you meant to put it down, the way its designers intended. A fair few "this aircraft feels wrong" complaints about payware and default aircraft alike come down to flying it at speeds the model was never tuned for.

Where to find your aircraft's numbers

Real V-speeds vary by aircraft, weight and configuration, so the numbers for a Cessna 152 won't match a Piper PA-28's. MSFS doesn't put them in front of you mid-flight. You'll find them in the aircraft's reference documentation if it ships with one, or you'll need to look them up and note them down yourself. Some pilots write them on a sticky note by the monitor; others keep them on a kneeboard alongside their checklist, so at least they're in the same place as everything else they're referencing in the air.

Once you've got them memorised for the type you fly most, the sticky note comes down and you just fly.