Ask a Flight Instructor

Here is an easy enough question that came in from Dennis:

How do I calculate a headwind or tailwind?

This calculation is very easy using a mechanical flight computer such as an E-6B . The E-6B is a circular slide rule that has two sides: the computer side and the wind side.  The computer side which contains several scales and windows is used to solve ratio problems such as time-speed-distance, fuel and several other conversions.  The wind side is used to find both a aircraft ground speed and WCA (wind correction angle).

To help guide you through the wind side of the E-6B, I’ve created a short video tutorial showing how to calclate a tail wind or headwind for a particular flight plan.

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