Wind confusion

I know I’ve been posting a lot recently and I apologize but throughout this quarantine I figured I would become more proficient in my Aviation knowledge. Something I am very confused about is winds. My first question is, I do not get why stronger winds would increase your ETA? I obviously get the concept of the winds pushing on you and cause more drag but what I don’t understand is why you couldn’t just increase the throttle and compensate for that? So for instance if you are on autopilot at Mach .84, if there are stronger winds, why does the ETA go up instead of a throttle going up ito compensated for it?

2 Likes

IAS doesn’t change because of wind. That’s why your throttle doesn’t move. There might be a slight upward throttle movement to help keep the aircraft at .84 rather then letting slow down. You’re flying at .84 into those winds. It changes your ground speed but not airspeed, you’re flying .84 still. If you went faster then the aircrafts cruise, there would be a lot of stress added to the aircraft…

If something is wrong feel free to correct me, humans make mistakes

7 Likes

Without bringing wind into the picture, airspeed and groundspeed are the same. If the air is perfectly calm, your speed through the air is the same as your speed over the ground. A headwind will cause groundspeed to decrease. A tailwind will cause it to increase. Neither of these, however, has any effect on airspeed. The speed sensed by the airplane — the air moving over the wings — has no bearing on how fast it is moving relative to the ground.

Moreover, if every time a pilot compensated for wind by increasing speed, imagine how much fuel they would be wasting.

Hope this helps :)

4 Likes

Like swiming in a calm lake, or crossing a fast flowing river… you cannot compensate with more air speed the speed of air itself, which is what you fly in.
Clear?
Uh…
Or think of the air as if it was a conveyor belt, either helping you be faster, or the opposite, or taking you sideways…

@Tyler_Barley…MaxSez: Ponder this Tyler;

Air/Wind are “Fluids”! Are you flying through the air, with or against the tide (Basic Science) is it Coming at you or an angle (Basic Geometry).
How about that Object in Motion (Newton).
Extrapolation, Logic and nature’s laws rule the skies.
Max

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.