A trick pilots use to quickly calculate crosswind
The other day I was teaching a student on flight simulator. After he picked up the ATIS I asked him what the crosswind was going to be for take-off. I wanted him to start thinking about the information he had in his hands, and not making a habit of listening to the ATIS just something that he was doing simply because he was going through the motions. He responds by pulling out his calculator and doing the accurate measurement. I asked him if he carried a calculator in his real world PPL lessons, and he admitted that he didn't. So how was he supposed to calculate crosswind? This article outlines the simple trick of doing this. Once the wind direction has been received (i.e via the ATIS), the pilot calculates the angle difference between the runway heading and wind direction. The pilot then imagines the minute hand on a clock face indicating on that number of minutes. For example, if the difference is 15 degrees, the pilot imagines the hand pointing at the 3 on the clockface. The amo...