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I often play a flight simulator game Infinite Flight (http://www.infinite-flight.com) on my iPhone. The game lets you choose the following suffixes with your call sign.

  1. Heavy
  2. Super
  3. Flight of 2
  4. Flight of 4
  5. Flight of 5
  6. Flight of 6
  7. Flight of 7
  8. Flight of 8
  9. Flight of 9
  10. Flight of 10

I am aware what "Heavy" means but now aware about the rest. Can someone let me know?

Thanks

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  • $\begingroup$ you may rather like to ask this question here $\endgroup$
    – anshabhi
    Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 6:20

1 Answer 1

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Heavy - all aircraft with maximum take-off weight greater than 300,000lbs (whether or not they're operating at that weight) It's to highlight to the controller that wake turbulence could be a problem for a following aircraft.

Super - Airbus A380: As for 'Heavy', but more so.

Flight of X - All the rest relate to groups or formations containing that number of aircraft.

These originate in the FAA regulations and are summarised on Wikipedia

There are a number of other unusual suffixes including 'Concorde' (used only by British Airways for the now retired Concorde), Lifeguard (for medical flights), and others

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  • $\begingroup$ what about the rest. $\endgroup$
    – Ank
    Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 3:24
  • $\begingroup$ I quote: 'All the rest relate to groups or formations containing that number of aircraft.' $\endgroup$
    – user11516
    Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 3:29
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    $\begingroup$ Commercial aeroplanes are subject to all sorts of rules regarding separation, so it's unlikely they'd ever use 'Flight of...'. A flying club rally might consist of several light aircraft on some sort of social event and might fly together. $\endgroup$
    – user11516
    Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 3:42
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    $\begingroup$ @Ank: There already is a question about that here. But yes, the Super suffix was originally created for the A380, but it makes no sense to not apply it to the An-225, which has a similar wake. $\endgroup$
    – Jörg W Mittag
    Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 6:37
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    $\begingroup$ @Ank, in passenger operation they would not be allowed to, but for presentation purposes Airbus did it with A350s. Note that since formation flight relies on all the other pilots seeing the leading aircraft, it basically can only be done under VFR. $\endgroup$
    – Jan Hudec
    Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 8:34

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