Definition
Aircraft weight that consists of the airframe, engines, and all items of operating equipment that have fixed locations and are permanently installed in the aircraft, including fixed ballast, hydraulic fluid, unusable fuel, and full engine oil. Defined by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) for use in standardized weight and balance documentation.
Plain English
The weight of the aircraft as it left the factory, including everything that's permanently part of it plus a full tank of engine oil, but no usable fuel and no people or cargo.
Context Anchor
Seen in aircraft weight-and-balance data, equipment lists, and loading calculations.
Derivation
GAMA is the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, an industry group that standardized this weight definition so that all manufacturers reported aircraft weights the same way. Before this standard, manufacturers used different baselines, making aircraft hard to compare.
Why Pilots Care
It forms the baseline for calculating useful load and verifying the aircraft remains within its maximum takeoff weight limits.
Intuition Check
Do not read empty as completely bare or drained. Here, empty means no payload or usable fuel has been added, but the aircraft still includes fixed equipment, unusable fuel, and full engine oil.
Example Sentence 1
Before adding optional equipment, the aircraft's standard empty weight was 1,650 pounds as published by the manufacturer.
Example Sentence 2
Subtracting the standard empty weight (GAMA) from the maximum gross weight gave the available useful load for the flight.