Complex wind calculations (true air speed) in excel

[pantsmonkey]

Hello folks my boss is at me to try and make manual flight calculations a thing of the past again. He has asked if I can locate a method of automating ground speed plus wind variations so he doesn't have to use a flight calculation slide rule.

I have located the required equations and am wondering if these calculations can be done using excel.

The mathematical formulas that equate to the results of the E6B wind calculator are as follows: (desired course is A, true airspeed is B, wind direction is C, wind velocity is D. A and C are angles. B and D are in any unit of speed you choose as long as it's used consistently). π is 3.14159...

Wind Correction Angle:

True ground speed:

Wind Correction Angle, in degrees, as it might be programmed into a computer (which includes conversion of degrees to radians and back):

True ground speed is calculated as:

Basically he will plonk in the direction hes going and the speed he is planning on traveling @ the wind and its speed into 4 different cells and it will calculate his true ground speed between the various way points on his journey.

 

[Andrew Fergus]

Hi

The formulas you provided give the answer you need. If you substitute the WCA from the first formula into the second then you can use the standard excel functions to calculate the GS. Sin and cos are standard Excel functions, as is sqrt - the only tricky part is the sin to the power of negative 1 - this is merely shorthand notation for arcsin, for which Excel uses the asin function.

I recommend you give it a go and post back if you need any help. I would also recommend your boss compare his manual calculation to yours to make sure everything is a ok!

Andrew

 

[Smitty]

Duplicate.

Smitty