What A/C weight is "Heavy"?

[rudderdog]

I have heard ATC ask "are you heavy today" down in Miami a couple of times...I don't know why they were asking

Like I said earlier, they do ask that occasionally just to get an idea of what kind of climb they'll get out of you. A light 757 can possibly do 2000+ fpm all the way up while a heavy one can't come close, especially the last few thou.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

According to my 711065 (ATC Guidelines)

<12500 is a small
>12500<55000 is a small plus
>55000<255000 is a large
>255000 is a heavy.


The reason 757's have there own wake turbulance separtion then most large aircraft is because its basically the same design as the 767. The FAA wanted to reclassify heavy's after the design of the 757 and the wake turbulance problems associated. Well all the airlines said hell no, your not gonna do that because then we have to pay greater landing fees at our destinations because they are considered heavys. So the FAA said fine, we will make a separate category of aircraft...
small
small plus
large
757
heavy.
Although, I have heard some 757's on freq opearate with the Heave suffix.

 

[surplus1]

I have heard ATC ask "are you heavy today" down in Miami a couple of times...I don't know why they were asking

I don't dispute the idea that this question may be rerlated to climb performance.

Another reason is this. Controllers know (generally) which flight numbers use what type of aircraft. They also know when an airline has the habit of switching equipment on a particular flight number. When this "switch" is common and varies between a "heavy" and a non-heavy, controllers ask the question. A good example would be an airline that operates both "heavy" and "light" 757's on the same flight number.

 

[rudderdog]

I don't dispute the idea that this question may be rerlated to climb performance.

Another reason is this. Controllers know (generally) which flight numbers use what type of aircraft. They also know when an airline has the habit of switching equipment on a particular flight number. When this "switch" is common and varies between a "heavy" and a non-heavy, controllers ask the question. A good example would be an airline that operates both "heavy" and "light" 757's on the same flight number.

Good point. You're probably more correct than I, especially if asked on the ground.

 

[Spooky 1]

Just remember, not all aircraft of the same type and model are certified with the same max gross weight. Sometimes it's the company (NWA, UAL etc) that limits the weight for their aircraft. Example.....Northwest 757-200's are not "Heavy" because their MTOW is less than 255,000 lbs. ATA 757-200's are "Heavy" because they are certified at 255,500 lbs. The 757-200 is the only aircraft I know of that can vary over and under the 255,000 weight depending on the order. I hope this clears things up.

This is really picking the Fly S*#t out of the pepper but we operate two B757's. One of them is certified at 255.0 MTOGW and the other is 255.5 MTOGW. Add 500 pounds to each for their MGTW. To keep in simple we use the term Heavy for both. Interestingly, Boeing says that there are fewer than 5 B757-200's built with the 255.5 weight.

 

[PropsForward]

No, it's called Roseanne.

Badumcha!

Rimshot.