Aircraft are catagorised according to the wake turbulance they cause. A "heavy" aircraft will have a big area of turbulance behind it and it would be inappropriate for a light aircraft to follow it closely (but another "heavy" could follow fairly closely as it would be less affected by the turbulence).CW1NY3478 said:My Question is when they land the planes say for example delta flight 1861 heavy decend and maintain.
what is the tem heavy mean???
thanks
I think it used to be an actual weight, but has been modified due to some aircraft just less than "heavy" (757s) creating dangerous situations fr smaller aircraft.morfis said:Aircraft are catagorised according to the wake turbulance they cause. A "heavy" aircraft will have a big area of turbulance behind it and it would be inappropriate for a light aircraft to follow it closely (but another "heavy" could follow fairly closely as it would be less affected by the turbulence).
There is probably a listing of each type and it's wake characteristics online somewhere.