Originally Posted by
Sharklet_321
Can't do much about the hill though which is the main obstacle on climb out from 20
On the contrary, you can mitigate its impact.
For 20+ years SOU has had an alternative departure procedure depicted on a Type A obstacle chart " Runway 20 +15° slew". This is intended to turn the aircraft away from the hill, to provide a much better obstacle environment, thereby permitting increased take-off weights (ie more fuel and/or PAX). The problem was/is trees in Marhill Copse - were/are too close to the end of the runway to permit execution of the turn to take advantage of the improved obstacle environment. Fix the tree problem to permit a turn to use the "15° slew" + add the starter strip and we are in to to my "icing on cake" sceanrio!