Definition
A wind that strikes the airplane from a forward angle — neither directly off the nose nor directly off the side — typically from roughly 45 degrees off the longitudinal axis. It combines a headwind component with a crosswind component from the same forward quadrant.
Plain English
Wind coming at the airplane from a front corner, partly from ahead and partly from one side.
Context Anchor
Seen during taxiing, especially when deciding how to hold the flight controls in windy conditions.
Derivation
‘Quartering’ comes from dividing something into four parts, or quarters. A wind from one of the front quarters — front-left or front-right — is a quartering headwind. Knowing this makes the term self-explanatory: it’s blowing into one of the airplane’s forward quarters.
Why Pilots Care
Requires specific aileron and elevator inputs to prevent a wing from lifting or the nose from being pushed down during ground operations.
Grounding Statement
Picture taxiing forward while the wind hits the airplane from the front-left or front-right corner.
Intuition Check
Quartering does not mean one-fourth as strong. It means the wind is coming from an angled direction off one side of the nose.
Example Sentence 1
With a quartering headwind from the left, the pilot held the yoke turned left and slightly back during taxi.
Example Sentence 2
The airplane weathervanes slightly toward a quartering headwind, so the pilot uses rudder to maintain the desired taxi path.