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You are flying with a TAS of 180 knots and you want to maintain a constant track. There is wind coming from the right at a 30 degrees angle from your track, at a speed of 60 knots. Use mental dead reckoning to find out the XWC and WCA.

  • A

    XWC of 30 kts and WCA 3

  • B

    XWC of 30 kts and WCA 10

  • C

    XWC of 52 kts and WCA 3

  • D

    XWC of 52 kts and WCA 10

Mental Dead Reckoning (MDR) crosswind component:

The XWC can be calculated using a “clock code rule”, where each 15° of wind angle is represented by ¼ of an hour – meaning ¼ the wind strength

Wind angle15°30°45°60°
% of wind speed255075100

(wind angle is the angle between the wind vector and the track/runway direction to the nearest 10°)

  • We can immediately conclude that the crosswind component equals: 50% of 60 kt = 30 kt

Mental Dead Reckoning (MDR) off-track corrections

Based on the 1:60 rule:

Angle between the Heading and the track = (XWC (kt) x 60) / TAS (kt)
Angle between the Heading and the track = (30 kt x 60) / 180 kt
Angle between the Heading and the track = 10°

In this case, we have wind from the right. Meaning that the Heading is from the right of the track. The result:

  • WCA: 10°R (+)

Alternative calculation
The wind velocity is made of two components, one acting along the runway called the headwind component, and the other acting across the runway called the crosswind component.
It is possible to calculate the crosswind component taking the sine and the cosine of the relative bearing between the runway and the wind direction.

Head/Tail wind component = Wind Speed x cosine (Relative Bearing)

Crosswind component = Wind Speed x sine (Relative Bearing)

Crosswind component = 60 x sine (30) = 30 kts

Even though not all the information is provided it can be solved in the same way as determining heading and G/S.
On the flight computer set track 360°, and a wind vector 30° right off track, 030° / 60 kts.

The same way as, Determining Heading and G/S with the flight computer:

Set Wind Direction (030°) under True Index.

Mark wind Velocity (60 kts) up from center point (100 kts).

Set True Course (360°) under True Index.

Slide wind Velocity mark to True Air Speed (180 kts).

Ground Speed reads under center.

WCA reads between center line and wind velocity mark.

Your Notes (not visible to others)



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