Yesterday evening at 17.42 hrs I watched a Sri Lankan A340 take off from LHR 27 L and turn almost eastward without crossing the M25 ! Amazing. Would they have been asked by ATC to do that ?

They might have done... but the SID calls for the turn at 1nm DME, which is very close to the M25.

I once saw a Boeing 707, asked for an early left turn out, almost put its wingtip down one of the cargo cul-de-sacs! Quite spectacular.

Might have been Tex Johnson flying it !

You guys should get out more. If you go to Chicago O'Hare you'll see just about every departure make a 90 degree turn by the time they're overhead the airport boundary.

I'll get out more !!

Hi,

On the subject of early turns:

I seem to recall that during the fairly brief period that British Midland operated DHC 7s out of EGLL they would routinely turn left in the climb somewhere over the mid-point of 27L ! (probably 28L at the time) and climb out over the Cargo area; I can only assume by special arrangement.

Interestingly, the Brymon guys did not tend to do the same thing.

Even the A380 does it from time to time ..... this was a few days ago (27th Sept) ......

It's even more fun from the pointy end.
At the old Osaka airport, the noise abatement procedure developed by PanAm (and used by SQ) was left hand pylon turns at 200 feet on the Tokyo Fire and Marine insurance building when the DME was unserviceable.
In a 707...great fun, indeed

A Sri Lankan A343 lost an engine on take off from ZRH yesterday, see rumours and news.

Going out of JFK,[can't remember which runway] Concorde used to bank almost as soon as the wheels left the tarmac. We were always warned in advance but it was a complete non event [other than the unusual attitude] as Concorde always felt like it was flying on rails wherever it was pointing. Noise abatement profile I think. Ah Concorde!!!!!
Aviate 1138

@Navy_Adversary: the incident discussed in rumours and news didn't happen yesterday, but on 5th September 2004

Infamous SXM St Maarten. Runway 2 km long, 300 m tall hill 2 km directly off normal departure end of runway. A right turn out over the sea required by all including the 747s with fuel to reach Europe. Do they really fly nonstop to Europe or is there a stop at PTP/FDF,etc?
http://www.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!/open.file/1031321/M/

The A.F. 340's are weight restricted - approx only 70% and do CDG direct.
As far as I know, KLM 74's tech stop - they only have short turn round and climb out very well.
No idea what Corsair do.

Well it was off track on the DVR NPR. But picked the centre line up around Laleham.

And it did cross the M25, all 8 lanes, but never made the Wraysbury resevoir!

I'm sure you're right, I was on junction 14 at the time, and it looked a close call as to whether it crossed. Now then, being a humble PPL, what's a DVR NPR ?

NPR = Noise Preferential Route. Basically it follows the SID, and is a corridor 3km wide. Aircraft are requested to follow the NPR, until 4000ft, where they can then be given a heading.

The Sri Lanka was on (actually off ) the 27LDVR NPR.

Olney2D..

Re Brymon Dash-7's.... I think due to the nature of the destination (PLH/NQY) and the speed of the aircraft, to avoid holding everything up, it was a general slow and low climb off 27L or R towards SAM or sometimes a direct low routing out of the London TMA pending other traffic.

Bells are beginning to ring a bit.. well, just a gentle tinkle! I don't recall any Dash-7 going out low-level, and thereby leaving CAS. However, such aircraft were not subject to noise abatement so, with agreement from the TMA, we'd often turn them onto a heading to get them clear out of the way - usually around 250, depending on wind, was enough. They'd then continue to climb out on that heading whilst we launched a few north and westbound departures to use up a few minutes until it was safe to continue with SFD and DVR SIDs.

There has been a lot of wx avoiding with LHR deps recently, which often includes early turns to avoid cells painting on the wx radar as aircraft line up.

(I am guessing that this is the case)

I was going to mention Wx avoidance. Was pretty messy yesterday afternoon with showers still around at tea time. Deps Changed over from 09R to 27L at 1505hrs local.