The European Union is proposing new wake turbulence separation criteria that it claims would “provide a more precise means of categorizing aircraft” than the current ICAO standard. Called Recat-EU, for European Wake Vortex Re-categorization, the proposed standard aims to “safely increase airport capacity by redefining wake turbulence categories and their associated separation minimums.” It allows for a reduction in separation minimums for certain pairs of aircraft, taking into consideration wake turbulence-induced accidents for the most vulnerable types.
Using max certified weight and wing span, Recat-EU groups aircraft into six categories, from super-heavy to light, but it also takes into account comparative data analysis of wake generation and wake resistance between aircraft types. “This allows reduction of separation minimums for followers behind weaker wake-generator types and/or for followers with higher wake resistance.”
To raise pilots’ awareness of Recat-EU, Eurocontrol has prepared a 15-minute interactive briefing. It provides practical information about the concept’s potential effects on daily operations, and allows operators to plug in selected samples of specific aircraft to see how the Recat-EU proposal differs from the current ICAO criteria.