OverviewClimaDrive™ elevates the realism of simulation by generating realistic weather reports using a weather database that contains terabytes of historical weather products published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from Feb 2015 to present for the continental United States. ClimaDrive allows simmers to re-create historical flight scenarios that include full pre-flight weather briefings that correlate with dynamic in-flight weather patterns of visual and non-visual weather effects powered by ActiveSky.
CompatibilityClimaDrive™ is a weather-simulation add-on to ActiveSky for Lockheed Martin Prepar3D (versions 1-5) and the original Microsoft Flight Simulator X (not Steam Edition). ClimaDrive will run in any web browser. It can be used as a stand-alone flight planner and pre-flight briefing interface, and its ability to generate real-time and historical weather briefings makes it a perfect tool for flight training and maintaining proficiency. Simmers who want to plug ClimaDrive into FSX or P3D for dynamic weather affects must also purchase one of the ActiveSky products and its compatible PC-based flight simulation platform. ClimaDrive is not yet compatible with ActiveSky XP for X-Plane (coming soon). Please refer to the appropriate product pages for ActiveSky, FSX and/or P3D for recommended hardware requirements to run your platform of choice.
FeaturesThe following video serves as a comprehensive user guide and offers a concise preview of ClimaDrive's features, and below that is a description of each feature:
Flight Plan generates a comprehensive flight plan and weather briefing using the following details:
- Aircraft Type - allows you to load your favorite aircraft from your local sim directory
- Departure Point - the airport and start location for placing the aircraft at sim runtime
- Destination - the airport to which you intend to navigate during your simulated flight
- Cruising Altitude - expressed as "Flight Level (FL)" where 7000 ft MSL = FL070
- Route of Flight - defines waypoints, fixes, navigation aids & airports along the route
- Weather Settings -three options for weather briefings & ActiveSky weather effects:
- "Real-time" generates a real-time weather briefing and weather effects
- "Historical" recreates weather events in the continental US (Feb 2015 - Present)
- "Weather Theme" recreates historical weather to fit these user-defined options:
- Prevailing Conditions = Random, VFR, MVFR, IFR or LIFR
- Weather Trend = Random, Degrading, Stagnant or Improving
- Thunderstorms = Random, None or Present
- Time Range = 0000-0559Z, 0600-1159Z, 1200-1759Z and/or 1800-2359Z
- Date Range = Mar 1-May 31, Jun 1-Aug 31, Sep 1-Nov 30 and/or Dec 1-Feb 28
- Wind = Calm (<5 kts), Light (6-10), Moderate (11-20), Heavy (21-30) and/or Very Heavy (31+)
Weather Briefing presents a full pre-flight weather briefing containing NOTAMs and the following weather products (real-time or historical) in both graphical and textual format (if available):

SimLauncher connects ClimaDrive to P3D or FSX using ActiveSky for dynamic weather effects. After reviewing weather for your flight plan, lauch ActiveSky and click "GO FLY!" at the bottom of the weather report, and ClimaDrive's SimLauncher will execute the following functions automatically:
- Set appropriate weather mode and time in ActiveSky for dynamic weather effects
- Allow you to select and launch the appropriate flight simulator: P3D or FSX
- Auto-load a FLT file into P3D or FSX to set time, desired aircraft and start location
- Auto-load a PLN file into both ActiveSky and P3D or FSX for in-sim flight planning
ClimaDrive is a game-changer when it comes to weather simulation. Please share your experiences with us. Have fun simming!
RequirementsActiveSky 2016 and/or
ActiveSky P3D is required for dynamic weather effects in-simulation that correlate with ClimaDrive's real-time and historic weather briefings.
Available Only As DownloadLike all products in the FlightSim.Com Store, this one is available only as a download. We do not offer anything on CD or other media and nothing will be mailed to you. You can download immediately upon purchase and again at any time by going to the “My Account” section of the store.