Wind Correction Angle: Staying on Course
Ángulo de corrección de viento: manteniéndose en curso
Your intended course is 000° (due north), true airspeed 100 kt, wind from 270° (due west) at 20 kt. Adjust your heading so your ground track matches the course.
Tu rumbo deseado es 000° (norte), velocidad verdadera de 100 kt, viento de 270° (oeste) a 20 kt. Ajusta tu rumbo para que tu trayectoria sobre el suelo coincida con el curso.
Ground track: 11°
Groundspeed: 102 kt
Wind correction angle: 0°
Adjust your heading to correct for a crosswind and keep your ground track on course.
Ajusta tu rumbo para corregir el viento cruzado y mantener tu trayectoria en el curso.
Explain what a wind correction angle is, determine which direction to correct given a wind's direction relative to course, and describe how wind affects groundspeed.
Without a wind correction, an aircraft flown on a perfectly reasonable-looking heading can drift steadily off its intended path — wind correction angle is the specific, calculable fix that keeps an aircraft's actual track over the ground matching the course a pilot actually intended to fly.
Teach It / Enséñalo
ENTIENDE
Como se presentó en la primera lección de este dominio, el viento empuja a una aeronave hacia los lados en relación con la dirección hacia la que apunta su morro. El ÁNGULO DE CORRECCIÓN DE VIENTO (WCA) es el número específico de grados que un piloto ajusta su rumbo, hacia el viento, para que la trayectoria resultante sobre el terreno coincida con el curso previsto. La habilidad clave de razonamiento es determinar en QUÉ DIRECCIÓN corregir, lo cual depende completamente de en qué lado del curso viene el viento. Si el viento sopla desde la izquierda del curso previsto, la aeronave será empujada hacia la derecha — así que el piloto corrige girando el morro hacia la IZQUIERDA. Si el viento sopla desde la derecha del curso, la aeronave es empujada hacia la izquierda, así que el piloto corrige girando el morro hacia la DERECHA. La corrección de viento también afecta la VELOCIDAD DE TIERRA — la velocidad real de la aeronave sobre el terreno.
¿Tiene sentido?
AVIATION WORDS · Palabras de aviación
DILO EN INGLÉS · SAY IT IN ENGLISH
“Wind correction angle is how many degrees you turn your heading into the wind so your actual path over the ground matches your intended course — correct toward whichever side the wind is blowing from.”
Ejemplo guiado
A pilot flies a planned course of 090 degrees (due east) with a true airspeed of 100 knots, in a wind blowing from due north (360 degrees) at 20 knots — a wind exactly perpendicular to the course, blowing from the left. Since the wind pushes the aircraft to the right (south) of course, the pilot corrects by turning the nose slightly left (north) of 090, flying a heading of approximately 078 degrees (a wind correction angle of about 12 degrees) to keep the actual ground track at 090. Because this wind is a pure crosswind with no headwind or tailwind component, groundspeed stays close to true airspeed — only slightly reduced, to roughly 98 knots.
Real Aviation Application / Aplicación real en aviación
Every real cross-country flight requires continuously monitoring and adjusting wind correction angle as wind conditions genuinely change with altitude, location, and time — a pilot who sets a heading once at the start of a long flight and never rechecks their actual ground track risks drifting significantly off course by the end of the leg.
Ask Your Teacher / Pregúntale a tu maestro
- How do pilots actually calculate the exact size of a wind correction angle in the cockpit or during planning?
- How can a pilot tell, in flight, if their current wind correction isn't enough or is too much?
- Why does a pure crosswind barely change groundspeed while a headwind or tailwind changes it a lot?
HAMPTON'S .02 CENTS
The "which side is the wind coming from relative to my course" reasoning is the single highest-value skill in this lesson — it's worth far more drilling time than the precise degree-value calculation itself, since a pilot who correctly identifies the correction DIRECTION but estimates the exact angle slightly wrong will still end up close to course, while a pilot who gets the direction backward will drift further off course with every mile flown.
It Would Behoove You… Continue to the final lesson in this unit: how GPS and moving map displays relate to these same navigation fundamentals.
Standards Alignment
CLASSROOM: Practical Navigation — Wind Correction
FAA: FAA-H-8083-25 (Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge), Chapter 16
CERTIFICATION: Private Pilot
SOURCES: Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (FAA-H-8083-25)