Single heading flight

Single Heading Flight (German: flying with a constant windward angle ) means constant holding against crosswinds. It is a method of meteorological navigation that uses a single rule of thumb to minimize the influence of possible headwinds for long-haul flights and to guide you precisely to your destination even in strong cross winds.

While calculating a “minimum time route” in advance requires knowing the exact, variable course of high and low pressure areas in order to use as little fuel as possible , the single heading flight only requires a prediction of the air pressure at the destination airport. Because of the baric wind law , the mean crosswind only depends on the total pressure difference from start to finish, so that the mean drift results from this.

The process is not only simple and in some cases even intuitive to use, it is also insensitive to the rapid shifting of some lows. If such a device changes to the other side of the planned flight route during an hour-long flight , the calculated “minimum time / energy route” becomes extremely disadvantageous there.

The only drawback of the SHF is that a precise flight plan must be submitted for heavily flown routes - which is why the independence from meteorological imponderables only allows the use of single heading over oceans or southern countries.

A similar method can also be used in sailing regattas . The best forecast of wind conditions does not always lead to victory, but weather-related experience and intuition also have their place.