Weather & Flight
Drone Ground Speed & Wind Calculator
Headwind, crosswind, crab angle, ground speed and flight time for both legs of your route.
Planning aid only — not certified flight-planning software or airspace clearance. Always verify results against your own aircraft's manual and check current regulations before flying. Full disclaimer.
Wind effect on your route
On the upwind leg the drone loses more than half its speed to the wind — plan the battery for the slow leg.
Outbound 90°
Return 270°
Round trip: 6m 58s — 57% longer than in still air.
Planning estimate only. Assumes steady wind and constant airspeed; real wind gusts and changes with height. Always keep a battery reserve and follow your drone’s own telemetry.
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What the calculator does
Your drone flies through the air, but you care about how it moves over the ground. Enter the drone's airspeed, the route you want to fly, the wind and (optionally) the leg distance. The calculator solves the wind triangle for the outbound leg and the return leg and shows:
- the headwind or tailwind along the route;
- the crosswind across it, and from which side;
- the crab angle — how far the drone must point into the wind to stay on the line — and the heading that results;
- the ground speed and the time for each leg;
- how much longer the round trip takes than it would in still air.
Press Load current wind to fill in the forecast wind for any place at 10, 80, 120 or 180 m above ground — the same data UAV Meteo's main forecast uses.
Worked example
A drone cruising at 15 m/s flies a 2 km route heading east (090°). The wind is 9.9 m/s from the north-east (045°), so it meets the route at 45°.
| Outbound (090°) | Return (270°) | |
|---|---|---|
| Along the route | 7.0 m/s headwind | 7.0 m/s tailwind |
| Across the route | 7.0 m/s from the left | 7.0 m/s from the right |
| Crab angle | 28° into the wind | 28° into the wind |
| Ground speed | 6.3 m/s | 20.3 m/s |
| Time for 2 km | 5 min 19 s | 1 min 39 s |
The round trip takes 6 min 58 s instead of 4 min 27 s in still air — 57% longer. Notice that the crosswind costs speed on both legs: to hold the line the drone spends part of its 15 m/s pushing sideways, leaving only about 13.3 m/s along the route before the headwind is even subtracted.
Why "airspeed minus headwind" is not enough
Many quick estimates just subtract the headwind. That ignores the crosswind, and the error grows fast in strong wind. With a 12 m/s drone in a 10 m/s wind blowing straight across the route, the headwind is zero — yet the drone has to crab 56° and makes only 6.6 m/s over the ground in both directions. The simple estimate would say 12 m/s.
How the wind direction changes the result
Same drone (15 m/s), same wind (8 m/s), 1 km out and back — only the angle between wind and route changes:
| Wind relative to route | Outbound ground speed | Return ground speed | Round trip vs still air |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head-on (0°) | 7.0 m/s | 23.0 m/s | +40% |
| 30° | 7.5 m/s | 21.4 m/s | +35% |
| 45° | 8.2 m/s | 19.5 m/s | +29% |
| 60° | 9.3 m/s | 17.3 m/s | +24% |
| Straight across (90°) | 12.7 m/s | 12.7 m/s | +18% |
Two things stand out. Any wind makes an out-and-back flight slower: the tailwind leg never gives back what the headwind leg took. And a wind in line with the route costs more total time than the same wind across it.
Getting the inputs right
- Airspeed is your cruise speed in the mode you'll fly, not the top speed from the brochure. Most camera drones cruise at 10–15 m/s in normal mode.
- Route is the direction you want to travel over the ground, as a compass bearing (0° north, 90° east).
- Wind from is where the wind comes from, exactly as forecasts give it.
- Use the wind at your flying height. It is often twice as strong at 120 m as at 10 m. Load it for the right height, or check the Wind at Altitude tool.
Limits
The calculation assumes a steady wind and a constant airspeed. Real wind gusts, changes with height, and turns around buildings, trees and ridges. It also doesn't model extra battery drain from flying into wind — for that, see the Return-to-Home Calculator and the Flight Time Calculator. Use the result for planning, keep a generous battery reserve, and trust your drone's telemetry in flight.
For the background — airspeed vs ground speed, drift, and why altitude wind matters — read How wind affects drone ground speed, flight time and range.