Heavy is an americanism?
the 'Heavy' bit is standard phraseology for the UK too, or at least it's mentioned more than in passing in CAP413, the CAA R/T bible.
What cracks me up is on Air Crash Investigator, they seem to use it for every transmission and even the ATC use it for their transmissions too. It does begin to sound a bit wank then - does this happen in real life emergencies, or is it the directors making it sound 'big' (or is that 'heavy')?
A