displayed wind/V on a flight deck and not in GA cockpits?
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Netherlands
Age: 70
Posts: 154
displayed wind/V on a flight deck and not in GA cockpits?
As simple as it seems, all modern airliners (and biz jets) feature displayed wind/V. Flying also in light GA SEP, I haven't seen it yet in GA planes, however I haven't flown types like the Cirrus, let alone types like a PC12
First You need GPS info, AND an airdata computer that both feed their values to a separate computer that distils W/V from them.
Is the complexity and cost so high that it is prohibitive in smaller a/c?
Richard
First You need GPS info, AND an airdata computer that both feed their values to a separate computer that distils W/V from them.
Is the complexity and cost so high that it is prohibitive in smaller a/c?
Richard
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Cab of a Freight Train
Age: 39
Posts: 920
Not really the cost but the administrative burden of getting an EFIS into the cockpit of certified planes. The Garmin G3X and Dynon SkyView have been doing it for years in Experimental's, and, from memory, the early Dynon D100's have done it for a decade or more there too.
Now the G3X & SV systems are STC'd you're starting to see them in more light planes with all their features.
Now the G3X & SV systems are STC'd you're starting to see them in more light planes with all their features.
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Not in Honduras
Posts: 22
If you want to display actual wind data (and not downloaded data from a ground source) you'll need some kind of inertial nav platform that is probably still cost prohibitive for GA aircraft.
I wouldn't know how digital attitude systems could derive both wind vector and speed from airborne sensors just using attitude information?
You can quite easily get an overall wind speed by comparing TAS and GS (from GPS or DME) but that's about it?
I wouldn't know how digital attitude systems could derive both wind vector and speed from airborne sensors just using attitude information?
You can quite easily get an overall wind speed by comparing TAS and GS (from GPS or DME) but that's about it?
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Seat 0A
Posts: 534
All the info you need is there, GPS track, GS, heading and TAS are all you need. The Garmin G1000 does show wind information, almost in the same way as the EFIS on airliners - even the miniscule Aspen Evolution can now display a wind vector - which airplanes did you not see it on? 

Join Date: Jan 1997
Location: UK
Posts: 7,737
W/V derived from a mathematical process called Kalman Filtering - it must be a complex process as it introduces a 7 or 8 second lag in the EFIS/FMC displays. More meat in the link above.
Same method and hysteresis with ATC surface wind processing and reporting. If you really need to know instant W/V ask for 'spot wind.'
Rob
Same method and hysteresis with ATC surface wind processing and reporting. If you really need to know instant W/V ask for 'spot wind.'
Rob
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Reading, UK
Posts: 13,926

In fact you can get a pretty good handle on the direction and strength of winds aloft at different altitudes if you have access to Mode S/EHS, which carries all four of those parameters.
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: USA
Posts: 714
No inertial nav needed, just any GPS groundspeed and track. The old ubiquitous Garmin 430 shows it, but you have to do half a minute of tediously entering info via the twisty knobs every time you want an answer; it doesn't continuously calculate and display it like fuller avionics suites do.
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: .
Posts: 49
All the info you need is there, GPS track, GS, heading and TAS are all you need. The Garmin G1000 does show wind information, almost in the same way as the EFIS on airliners - even the miniscule Aspen Evolution can now display a wind vector - which airplanes did you not see it on? 

Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Tring, UK
Posts: 1,688
W/V derived from a mathematical process called Kalman Filtering - it must be a complex process as it introduces a 7 or 8 second lag in the EFIS/FMC displays. More meat in the link above.
Same method and hysteresis with ATC surface wind processing and reporting. If you really need to know instant W/V ask for 'spot wind.'
Rob
Same method and hysteresis with ATC surface wind processing and reporting. If you really need to know instant W/V ask for 'spot wind.'
Rob
No reason you shouldn’t be able to get this in light a/c but it’s probably not so much of a game-changer as it is in a sailplane.
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Planet Earth
Posts: 1,980
If you want to display actual wind data (and not downloaded data from a ground source) you'll need some kind of inertial nav platform that is probably still cost prohibitive for GA aircraft.
I wouldn't know how digital attitude systems could derive both wind vector and speed from airborne sensors just using attitude information?
You can quite easily get an overall wind speed by comparing TAS and GS (from GPS or DME) but that's about it?
I wouldn't know how digital attitude systems could derive both wind vector and speed from airborne sensors just using attitude information?
You can quite easily get an overall wind speed by comparing TAS and GS (from GPS or DME) but that's about it?
‘411A NG’
Really, are you related to the original ?
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Netherlands
Age: 70
Posts: 154
I am a relative new SkyDemon user, still learning. I use a tablet with a built in SIM card, so whenever possible, I have, or should have en route connection. Till now I never saw en route any wind displayed, like I see when on the ground during preps, I see the W/V arrows displayed at intersecting meridians and parallels.
Lo and behold, yesterday I made a nav trip here in Spain, and apart form visible W/V arrows there was some extra wind info in the en route data line, topside of the chart, see pic. But I guess this one is derived from an interpolation of the next W/V arrows around You, which are coming from a meteorological database. I have no idea why I never saw them, maybe there was an update on the program.
SD has no input from IAS/TAS nor HDG.

Lo and behold, yesterday I made a nav trip here in Spain, and apart form visible W/V arrows there was some extra wind info in the en route data line, topside of the chart, see pic. But I guess this one is derived from an interpolation of the next W/V arrows around You, which are coming from a meteorological database. I have no idea why I never saw them, maybe there was an update on the program.
SD has no input from IAS/TAS nor HDG.
