Today I wanted to takeoff at YSSY airport and was requesting takeoff for 16R. But Ground told me to taxi to 16L.
Despite the fact, that I was at the gate right next to 16R which is irrelevant, I was NOT able to take off from runway 16L. I was in an A350 YSSY to EDDF which is roughly 18 hours flight. That means, my tanks are packed full and my MTOW is 100% at max with 280.000Kg.
This way, I am unable to takeoff on 16L. When accelerating I have at the end of the runway 150-160kts and crash into the ground. I tested that on casual server too. So I deliberately asked Ground a second time for 16R takeoff and again gave me 16L, so I dropped off the game, in order to avoid getting any violations.
16R is 13.000ft long and 16L is only 8.000ft long.
An MTOW takeoff of the A350-900 requires approximately 8,500â9,200 ft, in practice more likely â„9,000 ft runway.
It is very unpleasant to be urged to drop off the game after making a long, handmade flightplan from YSSY to EDDF or any similar. Ghosting the game should not be the only option. I wrote a pm to the Ground controller after leaving the game and it was a nice conversation and of course I know, he did not want to bother me on purpose, but it would be nice to be able to communicate this issue somehow ingame, before the need to leave. His advice was to add a âHeavyâ to my callsign, but that is assigned to aircraft with a max MTOW over 300.000kg and I was âonlyâ 280.000kg.
I understand, Ground controllers donât have the time to calculate MTOW and the length of the runway for every aircraft, but this now happened several times to me and one time I used the assigned âtoo shortâ runway and my landing gear hit the fence at the end of the runway like an aerosucre flight
Appending âHeavyâ to the callsign is for flights over 300,000lbs (130,000kg), so that wouldâve still been practical in this scenario.
This did happen to me a while ago though, was trying to land an a380 at YSSY on 16R and was told to land 16L, so being a smart alec I landed 16L and overshot the runway and crashed. I probably wouldâve done the same as you and left the server though, or if on the training server I might attempt it and see if I could successfully manoeuvre it (probably would still fail though hahaha).
As @JacksonC said, the Heavy callsign is for anything over 300,000 lbs, not kgs, so you are definitely well beyond that cap.
I would spawn in and send a DM to the controller before requesting pushback. If they send you to a different runway, say unable. However, if they persist in sending you to that runway, then go ahead and takeoff from that runway. It may not be the most realistic option (and trust me, Iâm very much for realism!) but we have to balance realism with the fact that itâs still a game and can be treated as such. If youâre looking for the more realistic approach, vatsim is the way to go, or doing it IRL
You are right. I was mislead by my MTOW weight given in Kilograms. Nevertheless it is, afaik, used to warn others of heavy wake turbulences and not how long my needed length of runway is, or am I wrong? Ok, then when itâs above 130,000 Kilograms then I will add âHeavyâ again to my callsign.
Yes, thank you, I will add Heavy to my callsign again for future flights. That might help. I am mixing up sometimes, because I use metric display for my values and others are given in imperial.
People have already mentioned that it is anything over 300,000 lbs not kgs but you are also allowed/recommended to use the heavy callsign on anything that is CAPABLE or has a MTOW over 300,000lbs, even if your aircraft actually weighs less than 300,000 lbs during your flight. IRL itâs even required in FAA radio communications except in the enroute environment.
True Nevertheless, even if I can make it here on IF, the official minimum runway length exceeds the 16L (8015ft) by roughly 500ft.
Thatâs what I find officially:
" The minimum runway length for an Airbus A350-900 at its maximum takeoff weight (283 tonnes) is approximately 8,530 feet (2,600meters), though the exact length varies with conditions and is detailed in the aircraftâs operating manual. The minimum required runway length is not a single fixed number and depends on various factors such as runway condition, altitude, temperature, and wind, all of which are considered in the aircraftâs performance calculationsâŠ"
Side note, you are very correct here. Wake turbulence categories are determined by MTOW, whereas runway length required generally varies depending on how heavy the aircraft actually is (a 787 from YSSY to YMML would easily depart off 16L. whereas from YSSY to KLAX it would most definitely need 16R, even though both flights are still Heavy)
(Not the best comparison but hereâs what I got) I went and tried it in my 747-200 and I got it off the ground in less than 7,000 ft (i think itâs less than 7,000 out of the 8,015 foot runway) with flaps 10.
And loaded a max weight of 800,000 lbs and max fuel load. And my thrust level was set to 85% (the same amount of thrust Iâve always used)
Nevertheless, even if I can make it here on IF, the official minimum runway length exceeds the 16L (8015ft) by roughly 500ft.
