The new A380 is in the heavy category but will be called a Super when controllers communicate with it. The word Super will be used immediately after the aircraft call sign.
So what you’re saying is that when we hear an A380 talking to ATC, we’ll hear something like, “New York Center - Lufthansa 380 SUPER is with you at one five thousand…”
Probably will be more like this…
“NY Center, Lufthansa 587 Super will be with you in a little while, whenever this big POS decides to get somewhere on time…”
Correct on your first try…you need a job?
Not as a controller, thanks. Maybe as a pilot in a year or so…
Then shouldn’t the Antonov or C-5 also get this type of designation?
I’ll believe this urban legend only after my 7110.65 gets changed…
FAA Notice 7110.464 Effcetive 3-1-07. Covers the call sign and use of SUPER. Separartion changes also. Transitioning terminal airspace 10 miles, heavy behind a super 6 miles, large 8 and small 10. Visual separation cannot be used.
No urban legend here.
Ouch!!!
Thank you. I breathlessly await my FAA Orders update in the mail…
But it still makes no sense…
It will be super if they ever get it delivered.
Interesting I haven’t heard anything about this. Thought the fact that they haven’t bothered to tell us isn’t that surprising.
Its on its way to KJFK… get your trackers and live atc feeds up and running.
Who’s got a flight number? I just checked all airborne aircraft by aircraft type. There is no A38x in the FA system yet.
That makes a bit of sense since the FAA is rather lax in adding European-originating departure messages into their ATC system. I’ve seen many AAL flights from Europe to KDFW on the radar map without an aircraft-type tag. Sure enough, on the flight tracker, they haven’t left yet. Still, they’re only about 80 miles from their destination, according to radar tracking.
I think that’s likely to be the only way to catch the A380 before it lands today – to find it on the KJFK radar map. And that’s why the flight number is important – because you won’t see an “A380” on the map when you see the plane.