Crossword clues for windsock
Wiktionary
alt. (context aviation English) A large, conical, open-ended tube designed to indicate wind direction and relative wind speed, used especially at smaller airfields. n. (context aviation English) A large, conical, open-ended tube designed to indicate wind direction and relative wind speed, used especially at smaller airfields.
WordNet
n. a truncated cloth cone mounted on a mast; used (e.g., at airports) to show the direction of the wind [syn: sock, air sock, wind sleeve, wind cone, drogue]
Wikipedia
A windsock is a conical textile tube which resembles a giant sock. Windsocks typically are used at airports to indicate the direction and strength of the wind to pilots and at chemical plants where there is risk of gaseous leakage. They are sometimes located alongside highways at windy locations.
Wind direction is the opposite of the direction in which the windsock is pointing (note that wind directions are conventionally specified as being the compass point from which the wind originates; so a windsock pointing due north indicates a southerly wind). Wind speed is indicated by the windsock's angle relative to the mounting pole; in low winds, the windsock droops; in high winds it flies horizontally.
Per FAA standards referenced below, a wind will fully extend the properly functioning windsock. A breeze will cause the properly functioning windsock to orient itself according to the wind.
Per Transport Canada standards: a wind will fully extend the wind sock, a wind will cause the wind sock to be 5° below the horizontal, a wind will cause the wind sock to be 30° below the horizontal.
At many airports, windsocks are lighted at night, either by flood lights on top surrounding it or with one mounted on the pole shining inside it.
Windsocks are also popular with children and can have bright and colorful designs. These windsocks are not particularly functional and are mostly for decoration. However, they can be used as a basic guide to wind direction and speed.
Usage examples of "windsock".
The windsock near the trees was indicating four or five knots from the northeast.
The Ju88 was already skimming across the Abbey with its lake and dropping down on the grass runway with the windsock at one end.
The tandem skydiving firm doubled as a flying school, and over to the left, in front of the ancient oaks just beyond the boundary, was a runway with a fluttering windsock and some decrepit Nissen huts.
A faded windsock flopped around helplessly on a pole on the top of the building.
And there, far below and approaching with uncomfortable speed was the belt of trees which fringed the airfield and beyond, the windsock blowing over the wide green.
He accelerated through the village and the airstrip was a kilometre ahead, the tattered windsock undulating on its pole at the far end.
The track had been pulverized to a fine grey dust and in the distance the dull green shapes of Army tents floated above the shimmering grass, a windsock hanging limp and the dust of a plane that had just landed lying like a pall of smoke over the improvised runway.
There was a short grassy field, a tattered windsock hanging limp from the cupola of an old barn, and an ancient Stearman two-seater tied down between the barn and the ranch house.
You see one airplane, a windsock, a barn serving as a hangar and aircraft production line, and maybe the world's sorriest set of shacks passing themselves off as 'quarters' on a so-called 'air force base.
Most of their spears were topped with bronze dragon heads, to which cloth banners had been tied, fluttering like windsocks, mouths wide open, with tails that ended in streamers flying wild as their Asiatic owners.