Qantas 56 HEAVY

[AIRMAN]

Anyone enlighten me why some aircraft call signs are followed by the word HEAVY?

I am assuming they are fully loaded with PAX and cargo, but most international flights are already fully booked, so what does HEAVY specifically relate to?

[rochedalescan]

The flight number is used as reference, preceeded by what is called the airline's callsign, and followed by the word "Heavy" if it is an aircraft capable of generating a large amount of wake turbulence (see the glossary). Once the identification is done, after a couple of transmissions, the word "Heavy" can be left out, and for expedited communications.

http://www.airodyssey.net/reference/radiocomm.html

So basicly any wide bodied aircraft thats over a certain weight, they would say their callsign followed by "Heavy" so others in the area can adjust and recalculate for the amount of turbulance etc

[Stretch]

Nice of them

Always caring to make sure they don't push little planes into the ground

[Phantom]

The true clasification is based soley on the GW of the aircraft - hence - some times 767 can be "Heavy" and then other times - they stay in the medium cat. Same with the 330 and a few other aircraft.

With different clasifications - there are different seperation standards that need to be applied to other aircraft to avoid wake turbulance - for all phases of flight - t/o - climb/crz/des and landing

[wxyz2009]

Heavy- An aircraft with a AUW above 300,000 pounds.
AUW - All UP weight, which is the total aircraft weight.

http://www.scanaustralia.bigpondhosting ... terms.html

[AIRMAN]

Heavy- An aircraft with a AUW above 300,000 pounds.
AUW - All UP weight, which is the total aircraft weight.

http://www.scanaustralia.bigpondhosting ... terms.html

Thanks for the info and the link!

[wxyz2009]

Not a problem !