The cockpit is interactable with the VR controllers. You can reach forward and push buttons and turn knobs. It's a bit awkward, but it's doable.
I'll typically hold the XBox controller in my left hand to control the flight stick and have a VR controller on my right hand to interact with everything else in the cockpit. It does get awkward though when I need to use the rudder or brakes, though, since in a real airplane, those are controlled by pedals. I have to try to press buttons on my XBox controller on my right hand while still holding the VR controller.
Buttons are easy enough to work with, same with levers. Dials were hard though because the normal human behavior is to pinch a dial, but in VR, you can only really grab, and knowing where exactly the game will deal with your grab on a small dial is tricky, especially if it's an autopilot dial with nested dials.
It'd probably work better if I had a VR system that had hand detection rather than needing controllers.
Could something like Apple Vision Pro work in an AR capacity so I can still see my physical controls?