PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Why do I have to say "heavy"??
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Old 26th Apr 2006, 23:54
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KingAir77
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Europe
Age: 46
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Why use heavy?

Hi Charly,

as said before, the term "heavy" is related to your wake turbulence, not your performance. The US saw a few accidents with Citations and similar planes being flipped over and crashing on the ILS, so they came up with using "heavy" in the callsign. It's actually not just for the controller, but also for the guy behind you. If you were sitting in a Citation, you might want to know who is 2 miles in front... One of these accidents involved a 757 and a CJ, and actually triggered that the 757 now qualifies as "heavy", even though it is below the weight for the "heavy" category. This also explains why a canadian area controller up north could not care less, since you don't fly around slow and dirty just before going oceanic...
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