What is the wind triangle used for in aviation navigation?

• A. A method to solve for heading and groundspeed given true airspeed and wind, used to compute wind correction and track.
• B. A weather map that shows wind patterns at various altitudes.
• C. A technique for calculating fuel consumption with changing winds.
• D. A method for plotting airspace boundaries.

Answer: (A)

The wind triangle helps you translate wind, airspeed, and heading into the actual path over the ground. It treats three vectors—your motion through the air (your true airspeed and the direction you point the nose), the wind itself, and the resulting ground track and groundspeed—as parts of one triangle. By aligning these vectors, you solve for the heading you must fly to achieve your desired ground track, and you determine your resulting groundspeed.

In practice, if you know your true airspeed and the wind, you can figure out the heading needed to counteract drift and the ground speed you’ll have. Conversely, given TAS, wind, and a desired track, you compute the wind correction angle (how far off your nose you must point) and the resulting groundspeed.

An example helps: if wind is blowing from the west at 20 knots and your TAS is 120 knots heading north, you’ll need to point a bit into the wind (west of north) so your actual ground track stays on north. The wind triangle is the method you use to work that out.

This tool isn’t a weather map, a fuel-usage calculation, or a plotting method for airspace boundaries, so those purposes aren’t what the wind triangle is used for.