Why is take off from Hong Kong in a rectangular shape before flying in its intended direction ?

Question

I flew from Hong Kong to Dubai 3 times and I noticed this each time on take off through the moving map display. It seemed to be for about 10 minutes before we saw the plane fly westwards.

But this seems to be quite standard for alot of departures, is it a particular reason ?

Answer 1

did you look out the window? mountains (hills)  and many very tall buildings in close proximity . flying the box gains altitude before getting away from the field.

http://whyfiles.org/230birdflu2/images/d...

http://www.fosterandpartners.com/content...

Answer 2

well, for each airport you have the SID's (standard instrument departures). This means you have to fly the route specified on your charts. Often in the take-off procedure, you have a lot of direction change (because of noise, terrain etc). So everybody in Hong Kong flies the same procedure. After the 10 minutes, you should be on your normal route to your destination, that's why you go westwards.

Answer 3

So you don't get shot out of the sky by a Chinese MIG-29.

They're very touchy about their airspace.

Answer 4

to gain momentum and use the least amount of field area to do so. If they flew straight, they would gain momentum but they would require alot of space in order to do the same job as the rectangle method.

Answer 5

Well thats called a traffic pattern , or it could be a specific Climb out or departure , like Kennedy one departure , canarsie climb. This is done so their is more spacing between aircrafts and controllers don't have to wait before clearing another plane for takeoff.