<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by letiole:
Kathy: The "heavy" designation is for wake turbulence, which can have devestating impact on trailing aircraft. You generally won't hear "heavy" used mid-flight because standard separation minimums generally prevent potential problems. The memos change frequently on 757s and on whether or not they're to be called heavies. Sometimes you'll hear controllers just point out to a following a/c that they're trailing a 757. The latest memo, however, is that 757s are to be referred to as heavies (many controllers still do the above though). Some 757s - particularly ATAs - are true heavies, which is determined by their maximum possible takeoff weight, not their weight at the time.
Here's a pretty good link about wake turbulence and heavies:
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Wasn't this brought about after the CO DC-9 crash at Stapleton in 1987?
IIRC, that DEN-BOI flight was upset during takeoff by wake generated on a too-close-by parallel runway by a DL 757