Night Deps - No SIDs, No Radar
Hello There.
Found myself in Marsa Alam the other day (not a bad place to go to - seemed nice enough) - RMF / HEMA, and was just wondering if I could ask a quick question.
Our FPL for the way back started as direct to the VOR at Luxor - the MSA in this direction (pretty much West) was something like 7300. There were no SIDs, and no Radar, and we departed back to LGW after dark.
Common sense dictated that as the airfield is virtually on the coast, going out to sea to get some altitude, then coming back over the coast again keeps everything nice and safe, and indeed that's what we did, but I was wondering about what you are legally supposed to do.
(As a quick caveat - this is me being devil's advocate, and I know that on the line common sense applies.)
Taking a generic case, let's say the MSA in the whole area is 4000 feet. If there's a SID, you follow that and that keeps you away from terrain. If you're visual you can look out of the window and make sure you don't bash in to anything, and if you're under Radar, the Radar chap will keep you safe. If you have none of the above, surely there's a chance that after takeoff you could get to 1000 or so, then turn towards the first point on the route, and fly in to a hill that's 3000 feet high.
Would be interested to hear people's views.
NW3