- #1
BT80
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Resultant wind speed/direction...
Hi, new here and am hoping this is in the correct forum and if so that someone can help with this little problem.
Basically I would like to know if there is a "quick" way of calculating an average or resultant wind speed and direction given a selection of 5 or so winds. My aim is to establish the mean wind that acts on a parachutist dropped from, say, 12000ft. If I take off in my plane and note the wind speeds and directions at 2000ft intervals as I climb up I can then manually plot them on paper, draw the resultant and measure the necessary angle; the length of the resultant divided by the number of samples gives me a wind strength. This average wind speed and direction can then be used to calculate the release point for the parachutist so that he lands on the drop zone.
What I was wondering was if there was a way of calculating it accurately and, importantly, quickly using a calculator, rather than drawing it out on graph paper. I can obviously calculate a resultant from 2 winds by dredging up some schoolboy math but anymore than 2 and I'm stumped (other than repeatedly resolving winds in pairs until left with one resultant!)
I'm no math/physics genius so please be gentle!
Hi, new here and am hoping this is in the correct forum and if so that someone can help with this little problem.
Basically I would like to know if there is a "quick" way of calculating an average or resultant wind speed and direction given a selection of 5 or so winds. My aim is to establish the mean wind that acts on a parachutist dropped from, say, 12000ft. If I take off in my plane and note the wind speeds and directions at 2000ft intervals as I climb up I can then manually plot them on paper, draw the resultant and measure the necessary angle; the length of the resultant divided by the number of samples gives me a wind strength. This average wind speed and direction can then be used to calculate the release point for the parachutist so that he lands on the drop zone.
What I was wondering was if there was a way of calculating it accurately and, importantly, quickly using a calculator, rather than drawing it out on graph paper. I can obviously calculate a resultant from 2 winds by dredging up some schoolboy math but anymore than 2 and I'm stumped (other than repeatedly resolving winds in pairs until left with one resultant!)
I'm no math/physics genius so please be gentle!