Final answer:
Pilots must adjust their flight path to compensate for windshear and maintain a safe landing trajectory. They use vector addition to calculate the necessary angle and use maneuvers such as crabbing or sideslip for alignment with the runway upon touchdown.
Step-by-step explanation:
Understanding Windshear and Drift Angle
When flying an airplane in conditions with crosswind, pilots must compensate for windshear by adjusting their flight path angle to maintain a trajectory parallel to the runway. This is critical for ensuring a safe landing. The situation can be analyzed using vector addition, where the velocity of the airplane with respect to the air mass (its speed and direction) and the wind velocity (its speed and direction) combine to produce the airplane's velocity with respect to the ground.
As an example, let's consider a plane known to be moving at 45.0 m/s due north with respect to the air mass. If the total velocity relative to the ground is observed as 38.0 m/s at an angle of 20.0° west of north, we can deduce that the wind is causing a significant deviation from the path the pilot intended to follow. The pilot would need to point the plane somewhat east of north to adjust for the wind's influence and maintain a path aligned with the runway during landing.
In order to calculate the wind velocity, you would construct a vector diagram and use trigonometric functions to solve for the unknown quantities. When it comes to last-minute maneuvers, especially in cases of high windshear with a high drift angle, the pilot must make adjustments to the aircraft's orientation to ensure that the wheels touch down pointing straight down the runway. This may require a technique known as crabbing or a sideslip during the final approach.
Crabbing and Sideslip Maneuvers
The crabbing technique involves orienting the nose of the plane into the wind, which is necessary to maintain the desired flight path over the ground. In a sideslip, the pilot adjusts the rudder to align the plane's longitudinal axis with the runway while banking into the wind to counteract drift. These are advanced techniques requiring skill and precision, highlighting the importance of pilot training in handling challenging weather conditions.