When civil aircraft communicate with air traffic control what does "heavy" mean?
I've been watching 'Air Crash Investigation' on Discovery Channel and a plane identifies itself as "Transat 236 Heavy". I've heard this 'heavy' suffix a few times on similar programs.
Can any pilots out there tell me what this means? Does this mean that the aircraft is full of passengers, full of fuel or what?
Wilkes
2006-12-04 22:42:33 · 5 answers · asked by wilkes_in_london 3 in Travel ➔ Air Travel
Heavy aircraft refers to aircraft CAPABLE of takeoff weights of more than 255,000 pounds. They could be full of anything. They are refered to as heavy due to the massive wake turbulence they generate affecting other aircraft. I am an air traffic controller and my quote came out of the 7110.65 order air traffic control manual. If you would like to view the exact reference go to www.faa.gov/atpubs and look up aircraft classes in the glossary.
2006-12-05 00:28:47 · answer #1 · answered by Jeff W 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Wrong, ignore them up there, i am an experienced Delta Airlines pilot. The "heavy" in a callsign stands for the weight class of an airplane. It does not mean "full or passengers", otherwise just about every plane would be heavy! All trans-atlantic capable aircraft are considered "Heavy". These include but are not limited to, Airbus A330, A340, A380, Boeing 747, 757, 767, 777, McDonnell Douglas MD-11, DC-10 and a few military aircraft such as C-5 Galaxies or C-17 Globemasters. For example, I flew a Delta 777 from Atlanta to Frankfurt about a month ago, and my callsign was "Delta 20 Heavy" b/c my aircraft was about 200 tons, trans-atlantic and the model is consider Heavy as well. It all depends on weight class and the aircraft, not whether or not there are passengers on board. In smaller airports, Heavies aren't allowed. In San Diego and Jacksonville, they only have 6 or 7 per day, but bigger airports like Chicago and NYC have them by the hundreds daily. Usually their noisy too, but if you ever see a plane with 4 engines, you will know it's "Heavy". I hope this has helped...
2006-12-05 12:18:51 · answer #2 · answered by YourGuardianAngel 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Heavy is a large aircraft like a 747 and A 380. I dont know where the lower limits are. The heavier the ac is more distance have to be between them. They also need longer runways to land and take off. Thats the reason that they called it heavy. Johan
2006-12-05 07:34:32 · answer #3 · answered by Johan from Sweden 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Heavy means that there are pounds over gross weight .
2006-12-05 09:40:17 · answer #4 · answered by Paolo 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Full of passengers.
2006-12-05 06:53:43 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋