HOW would you determine the wind FROM THE AIR? Explained by CAPTAIN JOE

———————————————————————————————
▼▼My FLIGHT-KIT I highly recommend for you guys▼▼

▼▼The VIDEO EQUIPMENT I use in my studio and outdoors▼▼
——————————————————————————————————
00:00 Introduction
00:50 Wind on Unicom
02:18 Nearby airports
03:03 Cows show the wind direction
04:04 Gras fields
04:30 Lakes and Ponds
05:04 Windsurfers and sailboats
05:44 Windturbines and Windmills
06:15 Blown up dust
06:39 Flags
06:53 Chimney smoke
07:38 Repetitive wind cycles
08:40 What about wind on departure?
09:02 Outro

The first and the most important thing to remember: wind direction is always determined by where the wind is blowing FROM, not where it is blowing towards.

The directions of the wind is determined at the geographical system of coordinates invented by man back in the day. It is also called "cardinal directions" or "cardinal points" and similar.

It is interesting that in the Ancient Greece, the cardinal directions were also identified by the different winds. They were Boreas from the north, Notos from the south, Eurus from the east, and Zephyrus from the west. They are also known as the "Classical compass winds". Therefore, the concept of wind direction is very closely related to the concept of wind rose.

The wind rose is a graph that shows the prevailing wind direction and wind speed at some particular location according to statistics from many years of meteorological observations (also knows as weather history). So the concept of wind rose is used often precisely in meteorology.

Another word that says the same thing is "compass," a device for determining cardinal directions you know probably from your Scout days.

Thank you very much for your time! I hope you enjoy this video!
Wishing you all the best!

Your "Captain" Joe

Intro Song:
Outro Song:

ALL COPYRIGHTS TO THIS VIDEO ARE OWNED BY FLYWITHCAPTAINJOE.COM ANY COPYING OR ILLEGALLY DOWNLOADING AND PUBLISHING ON OTHER PLATFORMS WILL FOLLOW LEGAL CONSEQUENCES

[ahmedhelmi]

This kind of videos is very useful because it teaches the pilots not to be rigid and deal with the environment

[Alex_FireLion]

A little over a week ago I saw a large plane flying over when I was walking out of school. Turns out it was a Cargolux 747. It’s not often that a 747 flies over the area where I live, and seeing the Queen of the skies after a long day of school made my day.

[elwisuntemp]

For anyone considering, I can say Joe’s book has genuinely helped me a lot. And anyone who isn’t already considering, you should get it too

[danielruppert]

If you have a GPS device which gives you the ground speed, you can compare this to your IAS and voilà you’ve got your wind direction and speed. Keep in mind that the wind at altitude might differs from surface wind. Usually it turns about 30 degree to the right up to 3000ft AGL.

[tomfisher]

Hello, retired ATP-RW here, you did not mention to watch a bird land or take-off, they too prefer to take off into wind. If your IMC, use a VOR or ADF if available, to determine drift. Besides, in pre GPS days I was always aware during the entire flight where the wind was from for instantaneous auto-rotation decisions. Heck now a days, your GPS will display it.

[francescobruschi]

While looking for sail boats from the airplane bare in mind that sails are triangular so they can "swing" around the mast and navigate with almost any wind direction. (Anything more than 30 deg from the bow is good)
A better tip would be to look for boats at anchor as generally they face the wind.

[conned]

Not just a surfer but even knowing how to canoe is very useful information on wind correct, yaw angle, WCA, crabbing .good stuff Captain! Or keep some blades of grass to throw ....

[MarkusNordhaus]

I can add: you G1000 calculates the wind and it is also a good indicator when you already fly low. Also you can see your correction angle and when you make turns of roughly 90 degrees you will be able compile a good picture where the wind is coming from. Basically that is how the GPS is calculating it. You can also time from one visual point to anouther that you have on your map and determine your groundspeed and calculate it from there with you speed indicator ...

[TiagoSeiler]

Skydiver here, and private pilot: there is an alternate way, though it is not 100% accurate. Watch for cloud shadows. You can pick a reference and follow the edge of a shadow for a few seconds. Obviously that will give you the wind at whatever altitude the clouds are, but if they are low (below 2k AGL), it should be pretty representative of what's happening on the ground.

[nicjansen]

5:05 As a sailor, I'm slightly offended. It's true that surfers and some sailboats prefer to sail perpendicular to the wind direction, but you'll see them sail in any direction except straight into the wind. Sailboat masts roughly point downwind and surfers lean roughly upwind

The thing is, sailing as a sport is a tactical game about getting upwind and downwind. Therefor, you need to know why they do what they do to be able to understand any further nuance. Even many people driving motorboats don't understand sailboats and try to cut in front, whereas they could just change their course often without having to slow down

There're a lot of ways to spot the wind direction, but you need a lot of nuance and I think you should take the time to sit down and observe the following phenomena:
1. Shores, trees and buildings will cast a wind shadow on the windward side as said in the video.
2. In medium or high winds, dark patches of ripples will move downwind.
3. In high winds, light lines or even white lines of bubbles will form alongside the wind direction due to the air leaving the boundary layer over the water.
4. Like your wing chord, the chord of a sail is always at the optimal angle of attack. Sailboats going upwind will keep the close hauled, while going downwind requires them to be out to the side.
5. Surfers like perpendicular angles to the wind and lean into it.
6. Sailboats like any course as long as it isn't straight upwind, and downwind isn't great either. If you see a sailboat almost standing still compared to the others, it's either close to sailing into the wind or sailing straight downwind. The mast of a sailboat will point roughtly downwind

One final thing: there's no such thing as a sailing licence or something. There's diplomas, but people who just got them still suck at sailing. They generally get where they want to go in the end, but regatta sailors get there in almost literally half the time ...but if there's one thing you don't learn at inshore sailing class, it's course correction

[nickpook]

I have a vintage flying training book for Royal Air Force trainee pilots from the 1920’s. As well as lovely line drawings explaining how to tie down the biplanes of the era (a Bristol Fighter), it suggests using chimney smoke to determine wind direction. It helpfully points out NOT to use smoke from trains!

[SpookyFan]

Great tips. My understanding is that "perpendicular", not "prependicular", is the word for lines crossing at right angles to each other. The latter is typically a misspelling of the former. I'm open to correction. I like the cow tip.

[davidcole]

I got my PPL while training at an airport that was adjacent to a large lake. I learned to read the winds by referencing the water even more than the wind sock. It just became 2nd nature.

[patolt]

As a former helicopter pilot I was quite used to determine the wind just looking around in the countryside but I must confess I didn't know about the cows tip. That's great! Tip n°1: smoke, yes but not only from industrial facilities, just houses with chimney fire as well. Best regards

[AlfonsoRiveraJr]

Great reminder of natural and mechanical options available to a pilot during emergencies as well. The cows was something of interest. Trees, grass fields, corn fields are definitely understated. Great video.

[normadesmond]

"into the garden of your neighbor" 🤣🤣🤣so funny Joey! I'm ready for some one minute debriefs! 💙

[jeffbridgman]

Flying two courses 90 degrees apart and checking GPS ground speed vs indicated airspeed can help too. Where roads are straight and follow N/S E/W directions, you can fly along those and see which way the wind is pushing you. Of course, that's winds aloft and not the wind on the ground though ;)

[elcastorgrande]

The old barnstormers' trick was tossing the grass in the air. Lindbergh said he could tell where his wheels would touch down when he did this. Good video.

[danielamaus]

You could also fly full circles somewhat near the ground, memorize a point below the plane and look in which direction you drift away from that point as you get "blown" away by the wind. Not sure how good that works with somewhat faster planes, but it is good for slow(er) gliders.

Happy that you mentioned the cows, learned about that in paragliding school, but that trick only works well on flat meadows in the valley, not on the steeper ones in the mountains. (And did you know that cows can get pretty nosy and try to "inspect" (or eat?) you paraglider? Me neither, until I hat to scare away one that got to near to my wing.)

[tuskiii]

You can also fly parallel with and count how long you need to fly the lenght of runway (in both directions)
(Longer time=headwind)
(Shorter time=back(tail) wind)🙃