Wind Correction Angle (Crab Angle) Calculator

Which direction do I crab — toward or away from the wind?

Always crab into the wind, meaning turn your nose toward the direction the wind is coming from relative to your course. If the wind is from your right, you crab right; the nose points slightly upwind of your ground track so the crosswind component pushes you back onto course rather than off it.

How is this different from the crosswind component tool?

Crosswind component tells you the sideways force to counteract during landing rollout with rudder and aileron, expressed in knots. Wind correction angle is a heading solution for en route navigation — it tells you what compass heading to fly to actually make good a specific ground track over a longer distance, expressed in degrees.

What happens if wind speed exceeds true airspeed?

If crosswind speed component exceeds your TAS, there's no heading that lets you hold the course — the wind will always push you off track regardless of crab angle, and the arcsin calculation becomes undefined (this calculator caps it at 90°). This is a real limitation for slow aircraft like ultralights in strong wind.

Do I need this for short pattern work?

No — WCA is a cross-country planning tool used before or during a flight to set a heading for a leg of tens of miles. In the traffic pattern you're making constant small corrections visually rather than computing a fixed crab angle, since the wind's effect changes with each leg of the pattern.