The Active Sky wind speed and direction and temperature match closely with the real world. I use skyvector.com for flight planning and to get real world METAR information for airports, and never had any problems. I use windy.com for general weather and wind planning, and it's been fairly accurate with the sim, including at altitude. I have no complaints. Even freezelevel seems pretty accurate.
I've used various versions of Active Sky across FSX and P3Dv2 and v4. One reason I originally got it was because it had a weather map, something missing from FSX weather, and I really like it. Active Sky also does very good smoothing and interpolation between weather stations and for out-of-date METARS.
Here are a few things that have impressed me over the years.
I was flying south to my home airport (F00 in Bonham Texas) in the rain. Shortly before I landed the rain stopped. After landing I asked my wife if it was raining outside. "Not yet." Sure enough, in a few minutes the rain started, exactly what was depicted in the sim.
I was flying in Alaska, Sparrevohn through the Merrill Pass toward Anchorage. A few miles before the pass I saw areas of what looked like ground fog, at least 30 to 40 miles from the nearest weather station. On other flights I saw similar in various areas. Active Sky simply decided they should be there and depicted them. I saw that fog on this route on only one of many flights.
Flying Yakutat to Sitka down the coast, I was in the clear, it was clear over the land, but over the ocean there were clouds in the distance. No weather stations out there.
I was flying north, east of Dallas, in clear skies. Off to my left, over Dallas, there was a thunderstorm in the distance. Thunderheads, lightning, the whole works. About the time Dallas was directly off my left wing, I got a call from a friend who lived in Dallas. I asked her about the weather, and she said she was getting thunderstorms.
If you are in the sim and check out the clouds, then go outside and look up, it won't be exactly the same. But you'll see cumulus or overcast or whatever is appropriate. If you are approaching a weather front or thunderstorm, you'll see the clouds in the distance and be able to adjust your course as necessary visually.
Active Sky has a lot of options you can adjust to your preferences. For example, you might want to turn maximum turbulence down a bit for the passenger airliners, or limit updrafts and downdrafts... in my case to 500 feet per minute.
I recommend NOT flying through any kinds of clouds in a thunderstorm. That doesn't respect any limits you've put on up/downdrafts.
Google "microburst"
Some people complain about "flying on rails." Many people don't seem to understand that this is not a flight model issue, but an atmospheric one. Active Sky gives you enough "atmospheric texture" that you won't be flying on rails constantly and it feels natural when turbulence occurs.
If you haven't been flying in a while, and aren't using VR, have a quick look at TrackIR. It allows you to look around naturally by moving your head. I consider this to be the most important peripheral after a joystick. Not everyone agrees, so make up your own mind after checking out their website. TrackIR works in a variety of other games as well.
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