- Weathervane effect
Weathervaning or "weathercocking" (Heflin, 1956) is a phenomenon experienced by aircraft on the ground.
Aircraft on the ground have a natural pivoting point on an axis through the main landing gear contact points [disregarding the effects of
toe in /toe out of the main gear] . As most of the side area of an aircraft will typically be behind this pivoting point, anycrosswind will create a yawing moment tending to turn the nose of the aircraft into the wind (Denker, n.d.; FAA, 2004).It is not to be confused with directional stability, as experienced by aircraft in flight (Anderson, 1989).
References
Anderson, John D. (1989). "Introduction to flight" (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Denker, John S. (n.d.). "See how it flies". Retrieved March 22nd from http://www.av8n.com/how/.
FAA (2004). "Airplane Flying Handbook". Washington D.C.:U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, FAA-8083-3A.
Heflin, Woodford A. (Ed., 1956). "The United States Air Force dictionary". Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostranc Co. Inc.
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