Surely the Channel islamds were by virtue of theri location not as hot as inland lcations like Cov and LBA even if they are in the North (if youare from the Channel islands Cov is in the North) . Islands are usually windy most of time (except when they were foggy which i think was more of a problem with Ops into the Channel Islands.(judging from my fathers muterings about the places (BEA/BA Maintrol).
Re the Argosy's out of Turin how common were these circling departues back in the day? I flew Beijing to CDG on an ancienne AF 747-100 in the mid 1990s and that had to do an enormous circle returning back over the departure runway at several thousand feet to get over the mountains north of Beijing . Announced to the passengers by droll AF captain as nothing to be alarmed about but we need to be able to climb over ze wall . A memorable flight for that reason and because for business reasons I got to fly First as I had to be back in Uk next day and that was the only way. AF had caviar with ultra chilled proper vodka as a very generous 'amuse bouche' .