Wind Triangle Solver
Desired track, true airspeed, wind direction and speed give wind correction angle, required heading and groundspeed, with draggable wind, airspeed and ground-track vectors.
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Move the wind: drag the cyan tip (it is drawn downwind, the way the air moves) or use the wind sliders. The amber airspeed vector swings until its tip meets the track line — exactly the ruler step of the PHAK construction — and the readout gives the heading to fly, the wind correction angle and the groundspeed.
Drag the amber tip to change the true airspeed (its distance from the wind tip) together with the track (solve mode) or the heading (given-heading mode). Watch the green arc at the origin: that is the WCA (solve) or the drift (given heading); the pale vector from the origin is what the aircraft does over the ground.
Switch to “Given heading” to see the question the other way round: fly this heading at this TAS in this wind, and the tool shows where you actually go and how fast. Reset returns to the PHAK chapter 16 example; Scenario steps through documented cases including a wind too strong for the TAS.
Assumption: still-air TAS and a steady wind at one altitude; all directions are TRUE (apply magnetic variation and compass deviation separately, PHAK ch. 16). The tool treats the wind as given — a forecast wind differs from the actual wind.
Vectors: ground = air + wind, with the wind velocity pointing downwind. Solve mode: crosswind = W sin(wind − track), WCA = asin(crosswind / TAS), heading = track + WCA, GS = TAS cos(WCA) − headwind. Given-heading mode: the ground vector is the sum of the airspeed vector along the heading and the wind vector; track and GS are its direction and length, drift = track − heading. Both are the platform’s shared wind-triangle calculations — the same ones the IFR Trainer modules use for their wind corrections — so every tool on the platform agrees.
Verified: the PHAK chapter 16 worked example (TC 090°, wind 045° at 40 kt, TAS 120 kt) gives WCA 13.6° left, TH 076°, GS 88 kt — the handbook's graphical solution reads 14° L, 076° and 88 kt. The find-the-wind inverse recovers the wind from the air and ground vectors in 2,000 seeded cases.
Impossible situation: when the crosswind component equals or exceeds the TAS no heading can hold the track; the stage shows the airspeed circle not reaching the track line and the readout says so instead of a number. Zero TAS is rejected by the controls.
- FAA Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, FAA-H-8083-25C (2023), ch. 16 Navigation — “Wind Triangle or Vector Analysis”, Figures 16-19 to 16-23 (worked example TC 090°, wind 045°/40 kt, TAS 120 kt: WCA 14° L, TH 076°, GS 88 kt)
- Cross-tool: the same wind-triangle calculation as the IFR Trainer’s wind corrections (identical results checked)