Crosswind Component Explainer

A visual explainer that teaches pilots and the aviation-curious how to read the classic crosswind component chart and connect it to what they’d actually see out the window.

• Interactive chart — click an angle, drag the wind point, or grab the headwind/crosswind handles; the chart redraws the geometry live.
• Live runway scene — a top-down airfield that spins to the active runway, with three.js cloth windsocks, an ambient wind field, and the into-wind end marked for you.
• Gusts & tailwinds — see each component become a range between steady and peak, and watch the axis flip when the wind moves behind you.
• Guided tour — paged explainer panels with worked examples and real math (\(c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}\)), plus a windsock-reading tutorial.
• Day / night — a “backlit instrument” chart and a “night airfield” with runway lighting, and full reduced-motion support.

Built as a self-contained web app (plain HTML + ES modules, three.js, MathJax).

Try it here.