2.3 Operating enviroment and aircraft performenance: Wind


        Wind is something we deal with everyday. As pilots, maintainers, and crew we have all experienced our own encounters with wind, but this bring up a really good question. How does wind effect the overall performance of flight?

    
What is wind?
           

             Wind can be defined as the sustained horizontal movement of air, caused by changes in air pressure (page, 2013). Carts such as the one below, can be used by pilots to figure out where the wind will be the strongest and what direction the wind is moving when setting up a flight plan. 

How does it effect flight and aircraft performance?

               Wind can effect flight in many ways. It can make take off quicker since certain aircraft need a certain airspeed of wind over the wing to produce lift. so lets say an aircraft that requires an airspeed of 130 KT over the wings to generate enough lift for take off but you have a headwind of 30 KT. You will only need to generate 100 KT of airspeed over the wings to take off which could shorten the distance needed to take off. this can also effect landing by making for a shorter required distance for landing. So if an aircraft was flying at say 130 KT but there was a 30 KT headwind, the aircraft's actual ground speed is 100 KTs. this would reduce the necessary runway required for landing (page, 2013). Wind can also push an aircraft off course. for example, if an aircraft is traveling 100MPH due east but there's a southerly wind blowing 10MPH and the pilot does not correct his path to accommodate for this wind, he or she will be 10 miles south of their intended destination (The aviation history online museum, 2009).







How can pilots mitigate this factor?



                The rings on this graph are called isobars and the closer these isobars tone another, the greater a pressure change will be in that area, therefore creating stronger wind. In the northern hemisphere, air moves anticlockwise around areas of low pressure and clockwise around areas of high pressure. the opposite is true for the Sothern hemisphere. (Page, 2013) Knowing this pilots can look at this chart and tell where the wind is going and how strong it will be when setting flight plans. Pinots can also adjust their course, so say I'm a pilot and I wanna fly 100 miles west to my destination, but there's a 30MPH northerly wind, I would have to fly a 100 mile path southwest to accommodate for the wind.

References:

https://thepointsguy.com/news/how-atmosphere-winds-affect-your-flight/

http://www.aviation-history.com/theory/wind_effect.htm



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