Originally Posted by
737Andi
So my question is..is the HEADING KNOB actual flying courses with the aid of wind data or are these really headings?
In latter case, can these wind deviations not cause problems?
By the way, not a stupid question at all.
But then, the heading knob is commanding the autopilot to fly a heading, not a course, so it is not adjusted by on board wind data. Except in the airbus world if it is switched to track/FPA, which is normally never the case except for certain approach procedure (selected/selected non precision approach). Wind data in general is known to the ATCOs, and if they don't know it they ask us for a spot wind check. Except for the UK headings (also called vectors) are used mainly in the terminal area (and sometimes for a short tactical adjustment enroute), and will be changed by the ATCOs if and when needed. So they can react to trajectories that are not as they expected it, and with that to wind wind changes.