Crosswind Component Calculator

Pilots use it in preflight planning and before landing to split a reported wind into the part along the runway and the part across it. Wind 300° at 20 knots on runway 27 (heading 270°) is 30° off the nose: 10.0 knots of crosswind from the right and 17.3 knots of headwind. Wind from 120° at 12 knots on the same runway gives 6.0 knots from the left and a 10.4-knot tailwind, a cue to look at the opposite end.

This is a planning aid, not a go/no-go decision. The limits that count are in your aircraft's POH or AFM, including its maximum demonstrated crosswind, and in your own personal minimums.

headwind = V × cos θ and crosswind = V × sin θ

θ is the wind direction minus the runway heading and V the wind speed in knots. mph, km/h and m/s are converted first (× 0.868976, × 0.539957, × 1.94384) and rounded to 0.1 knot before the trigonometry, and every result is shown in knots to 0.1, whatever unit you typed. With the wind behind you the Headwind figure goes negative and the Tailwind figure shows the same amount; the sign of the crosswind gives left or right, and a crosswind that rounds to 0.0 reads No crosswind. As a check, a wind 30° off the runway puts half its speed across it, 45° about 0.7 and 60° about 0.9.

Use one reference for both angles. Runway numbers are the magnetic heading in tens of degrees, so enter runway 27 as 270, while the wind group in a coded METAR is relative to true north; correct it for the local magnetic variation first. An optional gust speed goes through the same formulas and shows beside the steady figures: 15 gusting 25 knots, 50° off the runway, is 11.5 knots across at 15 and 19.2 knots in the gust. The tool ignores runway surface, braking action and your aircraft's limits.