Why is headwind good for landing?

On take-off and landing, headwinds are good because they allow you to use a shorter runway. In flight, headwinds are bad because they slow you down and require that you use more fuel to get to your destination. Conversely, tailwinds are bad on take-off and landing, but are good in flight.



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Because headwind increases the lift, pilots prefer to land and take off in headwind. Tailwind is wind blowing from behind the aircraft. It reduces the lift and aircraft generally avoid taking off or landing in tailwind.

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With this in mind, horizontal winds (also known as “crosswinds”) in excess of 30-35 kts (about 34-40 mph) are generally prohibitive of take-off and landing. As far as how this happens, it depends on where you are in flight.

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A headwind, in effect, increases the performance length, the effective length, of our landing surface in proportion to the speed of the wind. A 10 knot headwind effectively increases runway length by 10%. A 1500' runway with 10 knots of headwind effectively becomes a 1600' runway (1500' x 1.1 = 1650').

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Headwinds are what work against an aircraft because these winds blow against an aircraft's flight path. Planes flying against headwinds are essentially slowed down by that wind. Think about running into the wind: it's much harder to run into the wind than with the wind (more on this later).

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For example, the Boeing 737 has a maximum crosswind landing factor of 30 knots (just over 55 mph). So that answers the second part of your question. Yes, a 'plane can land in 50 mph winds.

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As the plane descends into ground effect, it may actually accelerate if the engines are producing enough thrust, since in ground effect the plane requires much less power to keep flying. Power from the engines will translate into speed, if not height.

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Aeroplanes are made to run on the runway before take off, so that they acquire the necessary lift.

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There is no single maximum wind limit as it depends on the direction of wind and phase of flight. A crosswind above about 40mph and tailwind above 10mph can start to cause problems and stop commercial jets taking off and landing. It can sometimes be too windy to take-off or land.

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