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FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR'S MANUAL     113
While wind direction and velocity is listed as third, due to the necessity in many cases for its being disregard on account of one or both of the first two, it will be discussed first for this same reason. The direction and velocity of the wind are important factors during any landing and particularly in a forced landing, since they affect the gliding distance of the airplane over the ground, the flight path over the ground during the approach, the ground speed with which the airplane strikes the ground, and the distance which the airplane will roll after landing. All these must be considered during the selection of a field, if possible.
 As a general rule all landing should be made with the airplane headed into the wind. This cannot be a hard and fast rule, however, since many other factors may prevent it or make it inadvisable in the case of an actual forced landing. Examples of such factors are
 Lack of altitude may make it inadvisable or impossible to attempt to maneuver into the wind.
 Ground obstacles may make it impractical as well as inadvisable by shortening the effective length of the available field.
 Lack of a field into the wind may make it impossible from the altitude at which failure occurs.
 The best available field may run downhill, into the wind, at such an angle as to cause a down-wind landing up the hill to be preferable and safer.
The nature of ground obstacles may be such that misjudgment in attempting to clear them would cause a serious crash. (This is particularly true in the case of power lines, which are hard to see and judge accurately and cause a particularly nasty crash when hit.)
 All of these factors must be taken into consideration as a result of trained perceptions. Deductions resulting from observation and evaluation would not be fast enough in many cases. These perceptions are trained as a result of practice under simulated conditions which is another reason for intensive practice and emphasis on this phase of the student's training.
 The student should learn to determine the wind direction and estimate its velocity from the wind "sock" at the airport, smoke from factories or houses, dust, brush fires, windmills, etc,. and constantly check against these while in flight. He must learn to sense the wind direction and estimate its velocity while in flight from his drift, as well as by observing the indicators listed above. He must be trained to observe and evaluate his observations in terms that affect him while flying or his attempts to solve some practical problem of flying. 
 As experience increases, this sensing and evaluation will also become more or less automatic and, if he is properly trained, be fairly accurate.
 Wind direction and velocity are factors in all practical flying and, for this reason, the importance of always being aware of them and their effect on the execution of any maneuver with relation to the ground must be stressed.
 The altitude available for use in effecting a forced landing is, in many ways, the controlling factor in its successful accomplishment. This is particularly true of low altitudes.