headwind
A wind blowing along the runway towards the aircraft, which shortens the takeoff and landing distance needed.
Airliners take off and land into wind whenever they can, because the wind provides airspeed for free. This is why the runway in use follows the wind and why a spotter checks the METAR before choosing where to stand.
Nearby in Aviation
- go-around — An approach abandoned before landing, with the aircraft climbing away to try again.
- hangar — A building for storing and maintaining aircraft.
- heavy — An ATC wake-turbulence category for aircraft with a maximum takeoff mass above 136 tonnes, appended to the callsign on first contact.
- hold short — An instruction to stop before a runway or other boundary and wait.