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Windsocks VFR Pilot

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The wind matters the most during landing just before you touch down.

It is important to understand wind reports and how they come about:

https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Wind_Velocity_Reporting#ATIS_Wind_Velocity

Most of these reports are not actual wind. They are also not the wind right at the threshold or in the touchdown zone - but instead at the location where the anemometer sits.

Airliners also have a wind indication in the cockpit - which shows the calculate wind (vector subtraction between TAS and GS). This will show the current wind experienced...but again not the wind prevalent in the touchdown zone.

So for airfields prone to have windshifts (often due to vegetation or the terrain layering) it is invaluable to have a windsock next to the touchdown zone, even for airliners. However they are hard to see from a distance, and I can often not really make them out until about half a mile away.

 

  • Author

 

 

 

Do not forget that you have to control the Signals Area just next to the windsock.

In VFR (with old airplanes) the risk of radio failure is part of the failure hypothesis

8 hours ago, Dominique_K said:

Hey SD, lets talk MFS here, not real life, because this is what we « fly ».

ATIS ? I most often land where there is none and anyway it is unreliable.

Wind check ? Again often no tower where I fly.

Drift from flight path ? Genuine question : can you feel it in the sim for a wind less than say 6/8 knots and how far from deciding your pattern entry point ?

Additional remark : the best thing in the Cub  G3X is the wind indicator.

 

 

GNS 530 mod shows wind direction. It's still possible in MSFS to detect drift. My point was that wind sock size is just fine. Yes Asobo still need to tweak more life weather

Life time flight sim enthusiast, current airplane owner 172P (past C182F). FAA CP/IR ASEL/AMEL, FI ASEL

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17 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

GNS 530 mod shows wind direction. It's still possible in MSFS to detect drift. My point was that wind sock size is just fine. Yes Asobo still need to tweak more life weather

I don't think anyone is saying the size of the windsock is wrong. I believe that the visibility needs to be better as others have said above.

1 hour ago, reheat said:

I don't think anyone is saying the size of the windsock is wrong.

except for the person who started the thread.

|   Dave   |    I've been around for most of my life.

There's always a sunset happening somewhere in the world that somebody is enjoying.

If all you want is a way to see wind direction install the gtn750 mod and pop it up in a window (works for all aircraft even the ultralights) and change one of the fields to show wind direction and fly low over the runway.

 

L934vM6.jpg

 

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Edited by Glenn Fitzpatrick

21 minutes ago, sightseer said:

except for the person who started the thread.

I give up...

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