wind correction angle

[djrisc]

Redemption! Just did a crosswind landing in Bakersfield without crashing. ATIS told me winds were at 073 at 14, did a wind check right before landing with ATC and it was 340 at 11.

I feel so accomplished now! (celebrating the small victories.) lol

I need to get better at radial navigation in winds. I never realized how far off you have to be in order to stay on course in winds. I was flying 345 to stay on a 329 radial.

Is there any kind of rule for this? Like for every 10 knots of wind change your heading by XX amount? Or is just all based on feel and watching the OBS?

P.S. PilotEdge is AWESOME.. I'm loving every minute of this, it just gets better and better.

[ncsterno]

Brett,
According to my trusty 1960's vintage Sanderson Flight Computer, which is a slide rule type tool used to factor the needed deviation from true course to account for winds, in a 172 at 100kts the surface winds you noted would have required around a +8 deg correction. You probably were experiencing higher wind speeds at altitude which required the greater deviation. The projected winds aloft for your correction factored to about 28kts.
I'm sure that there is an "app for that" now, but old school still works.
Google "snaderson sc-1 flight computer" and you'll see some pics of it.

I had nearly a 20 deg "crab" on final RW6 into KSBD Fri night to stay aligned. A wild ride.
Chris S

[Keith Smith]

the wind correction angle is a function of your tas and the xwind component.

this, to me is one of the single most important uses of a GPS. it shows the desired track and the actual track down to the degree. I once flew an ils that started with a 40kt direct crosswind and finished with a 10kt xwind from the other side by the time I reached the surface.

what heading to fly? who cares.. just make the dtk and trk numbers stay the same it works well under quickly changing conditions. for enroute work you can make them match, note the heading, then fly the heading as primary and cross check with the dtk/trk.

[Peter Grey]

In the wind correction department, a good rule of thumb for those who use math while flying (and don't want to rely on a GPS) is that if the crosswind is 10% of your TAS then you have a 6 degree WCA.

[djrisc]

Awesome! Thanks for all the great feedback on this.

At the moment I'm still flying without the GPS as I'm still just really enjoying flying without it.