Flying Ships for DnD, advice sought

[Astromancer]

Basically, I hope to start a DnD 5e campaign fairly soon. The PCs will be hired on as part of the crew of a flying ship. The flying Ships of this world will look like the illustrations of Martian "Kites" from Space 1889. They won't fly on the same principles. The keels of these ships are alchemically treated wood.

How would you model the process of flying such a ship? I'd prefer simplicity but I want a bit of detail too.

To help you figure out this world, and answer my question better, I'll give you some background.

The four intelligent races came to this world about two hundred years ago. A large group of human women and girls (the men were fighting a Dark Lord, and most of the boys were killed by a baroque curse) were sent by magic into this Realm. Later, two groups of warriors were diverted from their goals by a powerful mage who foresaw the death of the old universe at the hand of the Dark Lord. One group was a small army of elves and the other a similarly sized group of orcs that had joined the forces of light. The orcs were exclusively male, the elves nearly all male. Later, as the death of the old realm was coming on too quickly, the mage sent a village of Owlins (hobbit sized owlfolk with wings) into the new realm.

Half-elves and half-orcs make up the vast majority of the population. There are small but thriving groups of humans (descended from those boy babies in their mother's wombs at the time of crossing) and some elves. The Owlins are more common than pure Elves or humans. As there were no female orcs sent along there are no pure blood orcs.

The PCs will be explorers looking for any other groups sent from either their old realms or another.