Simviation Forums

I recently took a Cessna 172 on a VFRshort-hop tour of Ireland and had some trouble assessing which runways to use when there were no windsocks visible. I didn't want to use any mapping or other device to determine the wind  so I relied only on how fast or slow the aircraft approached the field. Tailwind or head on. Does anyone have a better technique? Once again, relying only on what's visible from the aircraft. Abrupt shifts in wind direction are common in Ireland, especially in the west.

There's another way... in addition to determining if the wind is behind or ahead of you, you need to find out which side it's blowing from, and there's a tried-and-true technique for this. As you approach the field at or near pattern altitude, aim the nose at something you can see ahead, then just maintain that compass heading. If the landmark moves left, you are drifting to the right, so the wind is from the left. Vice versa, et cetera.

But it's tricky in simulation to tell which way to actually land on the runway... other than doing a groundspeed check in each direction, without real-life cues like flags, smoke, trees, waves, etc. you don't have much to work with, except maybe tuning in to a nearby ATIS or AWOS/ASOS broadcast (another common practice in real life, BTW... you may decide you don't want to bother going to some airport at all, based on conditions at some nearby airport).

In the end, though, once you commit to an approach, if you seem to be coming in at too fast a groundspeed, well, perhaps you should just try going in the other direction.

That happens in real life, too... 

We use water when we can.

Good evening all...

Crossfire...spoken like a true "Swamper"...

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug