Skip to content
Winghours

Free calculators and a logbook for pilots

Wind Correction Angle Calculator

Enter the true course, the true airspeed and the wind to get the wind correction angle, the true heading to fly, the ground speed and the time for the leg.

Free · runs in your browser · nothing is uploaded

Open on Winghours

Embed

Embed this tool

Copy this code into your website, blog or class page. The tool runs inside your page.

Please keep the credit link below the tool.

The wind correction angle calculator works out the heading you must fly to hold a true course when the wind pushes you off it. Enter the true course, your true airspeed and the wind direction and speed. The result gives the wind correction angle, the side to turn the nose toward, and the true heading to fly.

It also gives the ground speed and the headwind and crosswind components. Add the magnetic variation and compass deviation to see the magnetic and compass headings. Add the leg distance and fuel flow to see the time and fuel for the leg. If the crosswind is larger than your airspeed, the tool warns that no heading holds the course.

The result is a planning aid for the wind triangle. Use it with your own flight planning and the current forecast.

Wind correction angle calculator example

How to use the wind correction angle calculator

  1. Enter the True course (deg), the track you want the aircraft to follow, in degrees true. For a course of 90 degrees, type 090 or 90.
  2. Enter the True airspeed (kt) from your planning figures. Use TAS, not indicated airspeed.
  3. Enter the Wind direction (from) (deg), the direction the wind blows from. A winds aloft forecast giving 130 degrees means you type 130.
  4. Enter the Wind speed (kt) for the same level.
  5. Open More options to add the Magnetic variation with east or west, the Compass deviation with east or west, the Leg distance (optional) and the Fuel flow per hour (optional).
  6. Read the true heading, the wind correction angle and the side to turn toward. Then read the ground speed and the headwind and crosswind components. If the tool shows a warning, the crosswind is larger than TAS and no heading holds the course.
  7. Open How it was calculated to see each step with your numbers.

Use the preset buttons to load a wind from the left 90 degrees to course, a quartering headwind, a leg with variation, distance and fuel, or a wind too strong to hold course. Copy link saves your inputs in the address, and Print / save result makes a sheet with the result. The diagram shows the ground track, the air vector and the wind vector. Reset returns the calculator to its starting state.

How do you calculate the wind correction angle?

Find the angle between the wind and the course, then take the arcsine of the crosswind divided by TAS. The angle is the wind direction minus the course, and a positive angle means the wind comes from the right. The formula is WCA = asin(wind speed x sin(angle) / TAS).

Example A: course 090, TAS 100 knots, wind from 000 at 20 knots. The angle is minus 90 degrees, so the wind comes from the left. The WCA is asin(20 / 100) = 11.5 degrees to the left, and the true heading is 078. The ground speed is the square root of 100 squared minus 20 squared, which is 98.0 knots. The headwind is 0 and the crosswind is 20 knots.

What is the rule of thumb for wind correction angle?

For small angles, the wind correction angle in degrees is about the crosswind component times 60 divided by TAS. With a crosswind of 20 knots and a TAS of 120 knots, the shortcut gives 10 degrees, while the exact value is 9.6 degrees. The shortcut overstates the angle a little, and the gap grows as the angle grows. This rule is our own shortcut, derived from the same formula.

How do you get from true heading to compass heading?

Apply variation and deviation in order: true heading, then magnetic heading, then compass heading. Subtract east variation and add west variation. Subtract east deviation and add west deviation. East is least, west is best.

Example C: course 250, TAS 110 knots, wind from 300 at 20 knots, variation 5 west, deviation 2 east. The WCA is 8.0 degrees right, so the true heading is 258. Adding 5 west variation gives a magnetic heading of 263. Subtracting 2 east deviation gives a compass heading of 261. For the leg of 120 nm, the ground speed of 96.1 knots gives a time of 1:15, and a fuel flow of 9 per hour gives 11.2 for the leg.

What if the wind is stronger than the airspeed?

If wind speed times the sine of the angle is larger than TAS, no heading holds the course. The tool then shows a warning instead of numbers, and it does the same if the ground speed would be zero or negative. Example D uses a course of 180, a TAS of 60 knots and a wind from 270 at 65 knots. The crosswind of 65 knots is larger than the TAS of 60 knots, so no heading holds the course. Change the course or the planning assumptions.

Sources

The formulas for the wind correction angle and ground speed follow the wind triangle as given in the Wikipedia article “E6-B flight computer”, read 2026-10-25. The conversion from true to magnetic to compass heading uses the usual chart-navigation convention (east variation and east deviation are subtracted, west ones added); this page does not cite an FAA chapter for it. Checked October 2026.

Questions from readers

What does a positive wind correction angle mean?

A positive angle means the wind comes from the right of the course. Point the nose that many degrees to the right of the course to hold the track.

Which wind direction do I enter, from or to?

Enter the direction the wind blows from. Winds aloft forecasts and METAR reports give the direction the wind comes from, in degrees true for winds aloft.

Is ground speed the same as true airspeed?

No. Ground speed is the speed over the ground. The tool applies the cosine of the correction angle to TAS and subtracts the headwind component.

Do I use magnetic or true course?

The tool works in true. Enter the magnetic variation to get the magnetic heading, and add the compass deviation to get the compass heading.

Why does the heading change on a long flight?

Winds and variation change along the route. Recalculate the heading for each leg with the wind and variation for that leg.

Does this replace flight planning?

No. It is a planning aid for the wind triangle. Your flight plan, the weather briefing and the aircraft data still decide the route, the fuel and the heading you fly.