Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

3 Answers

ATC assigned heading vs course

Asked by: 1780 views FAA Regulations, General Aviation, Private Pilot, Student Pilot

Hello! When ATC assigns a heading, should we be correcting for wind to make this our course? Or do we just point the airplane in that direction and not worry about the course? Thank you for any answers!

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer


    John D Collins on Jul 06, 2019

    When assigned a heading by ATC, you are expected to fly the heading and not correct for wind.

    +2 Votes Thumb up 2 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. KDS on Jul 06, 2019

    A related phrase is “Fly runway heading”, with the same answer John wrote.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  3. Mark Kolber on Jul 08, 2019

    I think some people forget that we haven’t always had GPS and the easy ability to fly a track. So when you ask “should we be correcting for wind?” here is what you are really asking:

    When ATC tells you to “fly heading…” Do you

    (a) read the dial in front of you and make your turn

    or

    (b) read the OAT, tune the Kollsman to 29.92 to get pressure altitude, whip out your E6B, convert IAS to TAS, ask to go off frequency, call Flight Service for the winds aloft, turn the E6B over, do the wind triangle, figure out the wind correction angle, apply it to the number ATC gave you 5-10 minutes earlier and then make your turn

    ?

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.