While landing on runway 17 with winds from 140 degrees at 20 knots, what is the resulting left crosswind component?

To determine the left crosswind component when landing on a runway with a specific heading, it's essential to visualize the wind direction and how it aligns with the runway's heading. In this scenario, the runway heading is 170 degrees, and the wind is coming from 140 degrees at 20 knots.

First, the angle between the wind direction (140 degrees) and the runway heading (170 degrees) needs to be calculated. The difference between these two angles is 30 degrees (170 - 140 = 30). Since the wind is coming from the southeast (140 degrees) and the airplane is landing on runway 17 (which is oriented slightly to the west of south), this results in a crosswind component.

To find the crosswind component, we can use the formula:

Crosswind Component = Wind Speed × sin(Wind Angle)

In this case, the angle relevant for the crosswind calculation is the angle between the wind direction (140 degrees) and the direction perpendicular to the runway heading. The angle we need is 30 degrees for this calculation. Using the 20-knot wind speed and the sine of 30 degrees (which is 0.5):

Crosswind Component = 20 knots × sin(30 degrees) =