Aircraft Knowledge

German aircraft registration

For reasons of traffic safety and for identification purposes, German aircraft are subject to compulsory registration:

German aircraft must be marked with:

The registration mark is unique and unambiguous for each registered aircraft and must be clearly visible, on aircraft registered in Germany it might, for example, be displayed on the side of the fuselage or vertical tail and on the underside of the left wing.
 
The registration marking is preceded by the country code of the place of registration (e.g. D for Germany, OE for Austria, HB for Switzerland). This is followed by a combination of letters and numbers, both parts of the registration marking can be separated by a hyphen.
 
In Germany, 4 numbers are only used for gliders, all other aircraft are assigned a combination of letters, with the first letter corresponding to the type or category of aircraft (number of engines, maximum take-off weight) and providing information about it.

 Below is an overview of the most common types.

Registration mark
 Type
 Category
D – Axxx Aircraft
 MTOM more than 20,000 kg
D – Bxxx Aircraft MTOM between 14,000 kg and 20,000 kg
D – Cxxx Aircraft MTOM between 5,700 kg and 14,000 kg
D – Exxx Aircraft Single-engine, MTOM 2.000 kg or less
D – Fxxx Aircraft Single-engine, MTOM between 2,000 kg and 5,700 kg
D – Gxxx Aircraft Multi-engine, MTOM less than 2,000 kg
D – Hxxx Rotorcraft Helicopter
D – Ixxx Aircraft Multi-engine, MTOM between 2.000 kg and 5.700 kg
D – Kxxx Motor glider
D – Lxxx Airships
D – Mxxx Air sports equipment
 Ultralight
D – Oxxx Manned balloons
D – 1234 Gliders

On VATSIM, a realistic registration marking should be used as a callsign if possible, as this provides other traffic participants with information about the type of aircraft. For example, the callsign for a Cessna 172 registered in Germany would be DEABC, for a Beechcraft Baron DIABC (the hyphen is omitted when logging on to Vatsim).

ICAO Type Description

In addition to the familiar ICAO Type Designator such as A320, B738, C172, ICAO Document 8643 - Aircraft Type Designators also contains the ICAO Type Description. This is a code that describes the characteristics of an aircraft, such as L2J, H1T, S1P.
 
Euroscope already displays this description in the flight strip.

Flightstrip.png

But how exactly is the code actually composed?

The ICAO type description consists of three characters. These are explained in the following table.

1. Character

Aircraft category

2. Character

Number of engines

3. Character

Type of engine
L Landplane

1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 - Number of engines

 

C - if the engines are coupled and powered through a propeller system

 P

Piston engine
S Seaplane
A Amphibian T

Turboprop engine
H Helicopter
G Gyrocopter J

Jet engine
T Tilt-wing aircraft
Examples
Aircraft Type Designator Aircraft Type Description Description
B748 L4J Landplane with 4 jet engines
A320 L2J Landplane with 2 jet engines
DH8D L2T Landplane with 2 turboprop engines
EC35 H2T Helicopter with 2 turboprop engines
C172 L1P Landplane with 1 piston engine

ICAO Aerodrome Reference Code

Definition

The ICAO Aerodrome Reference Code is a two part categorisation of aircraft types which simplifies the process of establishing whether a particular aircraft is able to use a particular aerodrome. It is included in ICAO Annex 14. It has two 'elements', the first is a numeric code based on the Reference Field Length for which there are four categories and the second is letter code based on a combination of aircraft wingspan and outer main gear wheel span.

Element 1 - Reference field length
Code number
 Aeroplane reference field length
 Typical aircraft types
1 < 800 m DE HAVILLAND CANADA DHC-6/PIPER PA-31
2 800 m, but < 1200 m ATR ATR-42-300/320/BOMBARDIER Dash 8 Q300
3 1200 m, but < 1800 m SAAB 340/BOMBARDIER Regional Jet CRJ-200
4 1800 m and above
 BOEING 737-700/AIRBUS A-320

Field length means the balanced field length (which is when the take-off distance required is equal to the accelerate-stop distance required) if applicable, or take-off distance in other cases. Aeroplane reference field length is defined as "the minimum field length required for take-off at maximum certificated take-off mass, at sea level, in International Standard Atmosphere conditions in still air and with zero runway slope as documented in the Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM) or equivalent document.

Element 2 - Aircraft wingspan / Outer main gear wheel span

Element 2 of the Code is derived from the most restrictive of either the aircraft wingspan or the aircraft outer main gear wheel span. The categories are as follows:

Letter code
 Wing span
 Typical aircraft
A < 15 m PIPER PA-31/CESSNA 404 Titan
B 15 m, but< 24 m BOMBARDIER Regional Jet CRJ-200/DE HAVILLAND CANADA DHC-6
C 24 m, but< 36 m BOEING 737-700/AIRBUS A-320/EMBRAER ERJ 190-100
D 36 m, but< 52 m B767 Series/AIRBUS A-310
E 52 m, but < 65 m B777 Series/B787 Series/A330 Family
F 65 m, but < 80 m BOEING 747-8/AIRBUS A-380-800

It should be noted that Element 2 is often used on its own since it has direct relevance to detailed airport design.

Source: www.skybrary.aero

Wake Turbulence Category

Description

The ICAO wake turbulence category (WTC) is entered in the appropriate single character wake turbulence category indicator in Item 9 of the ICAO model flight plan form and is based on the maximum certificated take-off mass, as follows:

A special case is the B757 (MTOM: 116 000 kg - 124 000 kg) which shall be treated as an H (Heavy) aircraft in Germany, unless requested by the pilot.

Based on the article ICAO Wake Turbulence Category, source: www.skybrary.aero