Wind triangle?

[mattpilot]

WTF is up with this shat?

First time i've seen it was in the CFI test prep. It totally confuses me. Can anyone help me out with how it works and how it would be applied to a "real world situation" ?

thanks

 

[vclean]

Determines wind drift when the burrito you had for lunch starts working.

 

[legaleagle]

I agree. I was thinking the same thing. What is the use in today's environment.

CB

 

[Workin'Stiff]

I just looked at that question as the one I was "gonna get wrong."

 

[MTpilot]

You'll die without that thing!

Are you talkin about the one used for figurin crosswind component?

 

[Workin'Stiff]

Um... Nope.... A wing triangle is some fancy-dancy thing where you put some dots on your chart and connect um up... then it's supposed to tell you your drift, groundspeed, when your next BM will occur....

 

[sqwkvfr]

You wanna memory aid?


Just remember that the one going the opposite direction of the aircraft (line C to A) depicted is "wind direction and velocity."

Line C to B is groundspeed and true Course.

Line A to B is true heading and Airspeed.

I didn't even attempt to understand it.

My little memory aid served me very well today...I just got back from the Lasergrade place...AGI-96%, FIA-95%.

 

[minitour]

I didn't even attempt to understand it.

Ditto...that's actually a great memory aid...not that we really use it past the written.

-mini

 

[Flymach2]

The wind triangle or vector analysis is a graphical depiction of the effects of wind on an aircraft as it travels from point A to B. We commonly teach our students to compute things like TH, GS and WCA by using the E6B. We can show them visually in a vector analysis. Although utilizing the wind triangle in flight is certainly not efficient or practical, beginning students sometimes need a visual aid to understand the concept(s). More information on the why, what and how can be found in the Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. Good Luck.


Regards

 

[whaleroast]

On my CFI initial checkride, the DE had me draw one of those things out and teach her how to do it herself. I was like "what?" Never did that one before, or since. I just pulled out my E6B and showed her an easier way and she went into a rant about how us youngins aren't trained to the highest standards of yesteryear or some crap. So then, I pulled out one of the FAA books and proceded to show her how to draw one just to shut her up. Give me a break. She was a crusty old broad, like 70 or something.

 

[BD King]

WTF is up with this shat?

First time i've seen it was in the CFI test prep. It totally confuses me. Can anyone help me out with how it works and how it would be applied to a "real world situation" ?

thanks

You have to be kidding me. Is this what today's pilot knows (or what doesn't knows)?.............I have not taught primary for the last 15 or so years, but trust me, of the 300 or so primary students knew what the hell a wind triangle was. This is no insult to mattpilot, but have you been taught on an E6B?...Ya gotta know the basics. Ya gotta be proficient with ALL basics............There are two or three threads on this forum about the guys that bought it in Jeff City a few months ago. Read the CVR. Ya gotta be tough with the basics.

This forum has experience ranging from squat to tons. If you happen to be on the short end, that is quite ok. However, let this be a lesson. BE STRONG IN THE BASICS. This fricking thing called an airplane will kill you faster that a snake bite. Get all of the info that you can gather. Read. Quizz.

www.bdkingpress.com

 

[100LL... Again!]

The wind triangle is a primitive version of the wind computer on the back of an e6b.

It is essentially vector addition.

I'd type it all out, but I'm too lazy.

I'm sure some aviation nerd has a full description on his website, right next to the pictures of himself in a a flightsuit checking the oil on a 172.

 

[mattpilot]

@BD King...

The first time i've seen it, or anybody else in my CFI class, was when we opened the CFI test prep.

It doesn't pop up anywhere else (not to my knowledge). The basics of using geometry and vectors to figure out what wind does to an airplane, isn't hard. Its this stupid thing the FAA came up with and the way it goes about explaining/illustrating it that confuses me - and apparently, i'm not the only one.

After looking over it more, i am starting to understand it better - but if asked on the CFI checkride, i would in no way explain it the way the 'book' does. There are simpler ways of going about it.

 

[BD King]

@BD King...

The first time i've seen it, or anybody else in my CFI class, was when we opened the CFI test prep.

It doesn't pop up anywhere else (not to my knowledge). The basics of using geometry and vectors to figure out what wind does to an airplane, isn't hard. Its this stupid thing the FAA came up with and the way it goes about explaining/illustrating it that confuses me - and apparently, i'm not the only one.

After looking over it more, i am starting to understand it better - but if asked on the CFI checkride, i would in no way explain it the way the 'book' does. There are simpler ways of going about it.

It's actually very simple. SO SIMPLE that I passed my commercial writen many years ago using, get this, a yard stick and a whiz wheel. I am just stunned that the wind triangle is no longer taught. It is basic to navigation. This is no insult to you, nor was it meant to be. It is just that so many basics to flying and navigation have been, in essence, discredited.............Understanding the wind triange, having a chart, a time piece, and a compass, you can go anywhere on the globe. You will have to work at it, but you can go anywhere.


www.bdkingpress.com

 

[BD King]

In all honesty, I should have mentioned that when you get your flight instructor's ticket, by all means teach the wind triangle first. When you move to the E6B, or whatever, the student will have a hard grasp of what they are doing.

www.bdkingpress.com

 

[pwendell]

@BD King...

The first time i've seen it, or anybody else in my CFI class, was when we opened the CFI test prep.

It doesn't pop up anywhere else (not to my knowledge). The basics of using geometry and vectors to figure out what wind does to an airplane, isn't hard. Its this stupid thing the FAA came up with and the way it goes about explaining/illustrating it that confuses me - and apparently, i'm not the only one.

After looking over it more, i am starting to understand it better - but if asked on the CFI checkride, i would in no way explain it the way the 'book' does. There are simpler ways of going about it.

The 'Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge' explains the theory and use of the wind triangle. I found it quite usefull for reinforcing the basic concept of how wind affects navigation. The wind side of the E6B is just a kind of graphical representation of the wind triangle.

 

[nosehair]

she went into a rant about how us youngins aren't trained to the highest standards of yesteryear or some crap.Give me a break. She was a crusty old broad, like 70 or something.

Here's the deal. I have had several occasions at today's modern Wal-Mart check-out counters where the "computer" went down as I was checking out, and the "youngin" behind the counter could not do basic math to count out the change. Us old crusty farts know from many long years of experience that it is likely that some day you will encounter a "computer failure" and have to actually use your brain. It will probably happen. I know, right now you are full of piss and vinagar and you believe this manual brain labor is a bunch of crap. But when you input wrong data into a computer or calculator and you don't know the basic estimate of the outcome, you won't recognize the wrong answer. Knowing how to do a wind triangle gives your brain the ability to make a wild-a$$ guess at the effects of the wind, and your E6B is just giving you the specific detail. If you input wrong data, you are more likely to see it.
Fair enough?

 

[whaleroast]

Amazingly, despite the fact that I have not learned how to draw a wind triangle correctly, I am still alive. And so are all of my students. You must also pull out a sextant on your night flights and take readings on the stars?
Show your student on the sectional their route of flight, take the forcasted winds and give them an idea as to how they will blow the aircraft off the route. Then, take out Mr. E6B and show them how to figure out all of the stuff a wind triangle would. That's it. They'll get the idea and you won't bore them to death.