Originally Posted by Charly
Hi KingAir77,
it absolutly makes sence in the Approach phase of a flight. Often you hear the Tower controller advising you that the "preceeding is a heavy one", and it helps!
But why do I have to tell for example Salt Lake Centre (Upper airspace) every single transmission in cruise flght(!) that i'm heavy?
Unless they recently changed the rules, and I missed it, you don't have to. If anything, other pilots hearing the "heavy" on Center's freq. wonder who the newbie is. "Stop it, they don't care that you're a 'heavy'"
On
initial contact with ground you advise him that you're a heavy (certified 300,000lbs or more - 90 metric tonnes). "Kennedy ground, Connielingus 24 heavy taxi." Tower/departure/approach use "heavy" on
all radio calls. In the U.S. enroute controls centers don't need, or use, "heavy" in the call sign.
757 is not a "heavy". It does have it's own wake turbulence seperation. Flipped a Westwind on it's back going into SNA (Santa Ana, Orange County, CA-about an hour's drive south of LAX). Research into the accident found out that the wake turbulence for the 757 is much greater than expected for the size/weight of the a/c. As far as I know the exact reason isn't know but they believe it has to do with the continous flap design(fuselage to aileron) of the 757.
Another part of the problem is the 757 is very slick. You tend to get 'stuck' at 170-180 kts needed more flaps to slow while descending on the G/S. Even with gear it's often a waiting game to slow below 162 kts to get final flaps out. Both of those issues sometimes mean leveling off to reduce airspeed. That causes us to go above G/S. The Kahoe 4 Arrival in SNA keeps you high. So we're constantly above the G/S going into SNA trying to slow down and configure.
I'm just surprised we havn't killed any SEL departing off the parallel runway that is typically slightly downwind of our departure path. Due to noise abatement the 757 typically is climbing at 22-23 degrees pitch to 800'. No SEL a/c can match that. IMO it's just a matter of time before more die there.