Free sim
Crosswind Components
Every reported wind is really two winds: one blowing down the runway (headwind or tailwind) and one blowing across it (the crosswind). Set a runway and a wind below and the arrow splits into exactly those two components — drawn to scale, labelled in knots. The runway stays vertical, oriented like your heading indicator, so the headwind component is the up-and-down arrow and the crosswind is the left-right one: cosine and sine you can read with a ruler.
Swing the wind toward 90° off the nose and watch the headwind vanish as the crosswind grows to the full wind speed — a direct crosswind is the pure worst case. Then try the other runway end: the headwind becomes a tailwind, but the crosswind is exactly the same size from the other side. A crosswind is a crosswind on both ends.
On runway 27, wind from 240 degrees at 16 knots is a 14 knot headwind and a 8 knot crosswind from the left, which is 80 percent of your 10 knot personal crosswind limit. In the gusts the crosswind rises to 11 knots.
Same crosswind either way — the reciprocal only swaps head for tail. Land into the wind.
Two things this makes concrete. First, personal minimums: set your crosswind limit and the sim shows the steady crosswind as a percentage of it — and, separately, the crosswind in the gusts, which is where the go/no-go usually lives. A steady wind inside your limit can gust well past it. Second, which way to hold the controls: a crosswind from the left means left aileron into the wind and right rudder to keep the nose on the centerline, and the sim names the side for you. Aileron holds the upwind wing down against the drift; rudder stops the airplane weathervaning into the wind. On approach that pairing is the wing-low (sideslip) method; the alternative is to crab into the wind and use rudder to straighten the nose just before touchdown. The numbers are pure geometry — the airplane's demonstrated crosswind and your own limits are what actually decide the day.
Source. FAA Airplane Flying Handbook, Chapter 9, Approaches and Landings (FAA-H-8083-3C), p. 9-15, Crosswind Approach and Landing — the crab method and the wing-low (sideslip) method; p. 9-16, Crosswind Final Approach — rudder aligns the heading, aileron opposes the drift; p. 9-17, Crosswind Touchdown — remove the crab with rudder the instant before touchdown. Retrieved from faa.gov 2026-09-08 and frozen in this site’s repository, where a test checks every quoted phrase against that copy. Chapter 6 (takeoffs) is frozen the same way for the takeoff-roll technique: full aileron into the wind at the start of the roll, rudder as needed against weathervaning. The component arithmetic on this page is trigonometry, not the handbook.
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Next step
- Set your crosswind limit in the Go / No-Go tool
- Write your personal minimums down (printable)
- Decode the METAR that gives you the wind
- 3D windsock — what that wind looks like on the field
- Find your weak areas — the free 24-question Readiness Test, scored by knowledge area.
- Create a free account for the full bank: 2,074 verified questions with the FAA source on every answer, a timed practice exam, and a missed-questions drill.
The Private Pilot Quick-Review Study Guide covers this in chapter 4 (performance and crosswind judgment). It is in CFI review and not on sale yet; the guide page has the list for launch notes.