What best defines wind correction angle (WCA)?

• A. The angle between the aircraft's heading and the true north.
• B. The bank angle during a turn.
• C. The angle between the desired track and the aircraft's heading to maintain the track.
• D. The angle of attack of the wing.

Answer: (C)

The wind correction angle is the amount you must deflect the aircraft’s heading from the desired track to counteract wind drift and stay on course. It’s the angle between the desired ground track you want to fly and the aircraft’s actual heading. When a crosswind pushes you off your intended path, you point into the wind by the WCA so your resulting ground path remains on the desired track. The bigger the crosswind component relative to your airspeed, the larger the WCA.

For example, if you want to fly north but a west-to-east wind pushes you east, you’d head slightly into the wind (west of north) by the WCA so your ground track stays north. The magnitude can be estimated using the crosswind component relative to airspeed (≈ arcsin of crosswind/airspeed).

The other options describe different concepts: the angle between the heading and true north is just heading reference, the bank angle relates to turning, and the angle of attack is about wing incidence, not wind correction.