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. Left crosswind — hold left aileron (yoke 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 yoke: a crosswind from the left means left aileron into the wind, and the sim names the side for you. The numbers are pure geometry — the airplane's demonstrated crosswind and your own limits are what actually decide the day.
Drilling for the checkride?
Crosswind judgment — picking the runway, calling the components, knowing your limits — is chapter 4 territory in our ACS-organized Private Pilot Quick-Review Study Guide , alongside takeoff and landing performance and the numbers an examiner will ask you to defend.