Wind Triangle Calculator
Calculate groundspeed, wind-corrected heading, and wind correction angle from true course, true airspeed, wind direction, and wind speed.
Holding 090° with wind from 150°
With a 090° course, 120 kt TAS and wind from 150° at 20 kt, the solution is about 098.3° heading, +8.3° wind correction and 108.7 kt groundspeed.
The heading turns toward the wind to hold the course. Over 60 NM, the resulting groundspeed gives about 33.1 minutes, versus 30 minutes in no wind.
Formula and method
The wind triangle resolves the wind vector against the aircraft true-airspeed vector to solve wind-correction angle, heading and groundspeed.
Wind Triangle questions
What does a wind triangle solve?
It combines course, true airspeed and wind to solve the heading needed to hold course, the resulting groundspeed and the wind-correction angle.
Why must direction references be consistent?
A true course should be paired with a true wind reference, while magnetic values should be paired consistently. Mixing references can introduce an error roughly equal to local magnetic variation.
What if the entered wind is stronger than the airplane can overcome?
Some combinations have no steady solution for the requested course. PilotDesk warns when the entered crosswind relationship makes the wind-triangle solution impossible.