Inputs
Results
Angle difference
50.00°
Positive means wind from right
Crosswind (abs)
13.79 kt
Direction: from right
Headwind (+) / Tailwind (−)
11.57 kt
Tailwind shown as negative
Absolute tailwind (if any)
0.00 kt
Zero indicates headwind
How the calculator works
Let R be runway magnetic heading (degrees) and wind is reported as the direction it is from, W. Let V be wind speed.
- Angular difference:
θ = wrap(W - R)to the range [−180°, +180°]. Positive θ means wind from the right. - Convert degrees to radians:
θrad = θ × π / 180. - Crosswind component:
X = V × sin(θrad). Use |X| and label side by the sign. - Head/tail component:
H = V × cos(θrad). Headwind ifH ≥ 0, tailwind ifH < 0(use |H| for tailwind magnitude).
If a gust value is provided, the same trigonometry is applied using gust speed.
Example scenarios
| Runway | R (deg) | W (deg) | V (kt) | Δ (deg) | Crosswind (kt) | Side | Headwind (kt) | Tailwind (kt) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09 | 90 | 32 | 18 | -58.00 | 15.26 | from left | 9.54 | 0.00 |
| 18 | 180 | 240 | 22 | 60.00 | 19.05 | from right | 11.00 | 0.00 |
| 27 | 270 | 310 | 12 | 40.00 | 7.71 | from right | 9.19 | 0.00 |
| 32 | 320 | 270 | 28 | -50.00 | 21.45 | from left | 18.00 | 0.00 |
| 05 | 50 | 230 | 15 | 180.00 | 0.00 | from right | 0.00 | 15.00 |