Naha departure

[Sumo Boy]

Earlier today I flew out of Naha in Okinawa for the first time. After what seemed like 20 seconds of being airborne I felt the engines winding down, we leveled out and started turning. At this point I sh@t my self, assuming that we had had some sort of engine failure and were going for a visual circuit to land. Luckily this was not the case, but we flew level for a number of minuets before commencing climb again. I was wondering if anyone knows if this is standard out of Naha, and any possible reason for not getting a 747 as far away from the ground as possible!
Cheers
SB

[Globaliser]

Just from the experience of another SLF, it sounds like a noise abatement thing - you get this in many places. I agree that it could be a bit startling if you're not used to it.

[huckleberry58]

Looks like you got the CHINEN TWO DEPARTURE off runway 36. The aircraft is allowed to turn left above 500 feet but must maintain 1000 feet until reaching a certain point and that point is quite far away. It's not a noise abatement thing. Cheers.

[Sumo Boy]

Cheers,
Did it again yesterday and was able to scare the guy next to me, who was doing it for the first time, by pretending it wasn't normal:D
Ah the joys
SB