Reviews (by Dawid)

I heard of Active Sky back in the days of FSX/P3D but never bought it. But after seeing a couple of promising live streams I decided to give it a try. It puts the default weather engine to shame. MSFS looks so boring, plain and almost XP-like to me now. Not only is AS more accurate and closer to the real METAR: 100% times so far for me, it also makes the whole sim look massively better. The lighting change alone is worth the asking price. Sky colors look more natural and richer. And the cloud formations finally look realistic. No more undefined, thin clouds. I love this addon and I can say it's taken my simming experience to another level.

This is a must have for every MSFS simmer. Natural, smooth effects make flying in turbulent weather fun and much more realistic. Without RealTurb I get thrown around like a kite by the wind deflecting off the hills around Shoreham flying my Twin Star. With RealTurb it feels like I'm flying in a different sim. Just turn off the sound - it's pretty bad.

It'll be expensive to buy all the separate regions but it's well worth it for specific regions where you do more VFR flights. It's so cool seeing birds flying around, sitting near runways, circling over rivers looking for food. It really adds to the immersion. I was a bit worried I wouldn't be able to see them for more than a couple of seconds but the way it's been modeled the birds are clearly visible from a realistic distance. Some locations like Caernarfon have way more birds around than other airfields and that's great. You don't see the same number of birds everywhere. Plus occasionally you see birds flying around en route. The one downside is that if you're already CPU limited, like I am with my ancient i5 9400, then this addon only adds to the problem. Not a criticism but keep it in mind, especially if you want to fly complex payware aircraft between payware airports.