Wind triangle
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Blue is your airspeed vector along the heading you fly. Cyan is the wind, blowing from where you set it. Navy is the result: your actual track over the ground and your groundspeed.
Wind correction angle (WCA) is how far you must turn the nose into the wind so the two vectors add up to your intended course. Heading = course + WCA.
Course, airspeed, wind
Time, speed, distance
Fill in any two, the third fills itself in.
Fuel
Fill in any two of burn rate, time and fuel used, same idea as time/speed/distance.
True airspeed
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A rule-of-thumb estimate: roughly +2% for every 1000 ft of pressure altitude, plus a small correction for how far the actual temperature is from the ISA standard at that altitude. Close enough for planning, not a certified performance figure.
Time converter
Decimal hours on one side, hours and minutes on the other, edit either.
Back on track (1 in 60 rule)
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At 60 NM, 1° of track error is about 1 NM off. So: angle off track ≈ 60 × (NM off track) ÷ (NM flown so far). That tells you the error already made.
To get back to the same destination rather than just fly parallel to the original track, add a second angle, 60 × (NM off track) ÷ (NM still to run), to close the gap over what's left of the leg. Turn by the sum of both angles now; once back on track, you only need the smaller angle to stay parallel to the original course.
Unit conversions
Pick a quantity, enter a value in one unit, and read it off in the others.
Why the triangle works
Three vectors, always
Your airspeed vector (where the nose points, how fast through the air) plus the wind vector (where the air itself is moving) always adds up to your ground vector (where you actually go, how fast). Fix any two and the third is forced, that's the whole trick.
Headwind, tailwind, crosswind, all the same formula
A wind straight down the course needs no heading correction, just changes groundspeed. A pure crosswind needs the biggest correction angle for the least groundspeed penalty. Everything between is a blend of both effects, in the proportion set by the angle between wind and course.
True vs magnetic vs compass
This tool works entirely in true directions, matching a chart. A real flight plan adds magnetic variation (chart to compass) and compass deviation (your specific instrument's own small errors) after the wind triangle, not instead of it, do the wind correction first, then convert.
Why pilots still learn the manual version
A GPS does this instantly and better. The manual E6B (or this diagram) earns its keep when you need a sanity check on a GPS number, when the box fails, or on the ground during flight planning before you've even started the engine.