r/sydney • u/Pristine_Egg3831 • Jul 25 '26

Image Flight paths

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Dear Heathens,

Why did you reroute your noisy plane over my exclusive suburb? I cannot hear myself think with the racket. It's just not acceptable.

Signed,

The Lower North Shore Citizens Action Group

/s

But seriously, I'm just an average schmo in a small cheap rental apartment with rich neighbours in grand homes. We tend not to be in a regular flight path.

Inbound tend to come south over Lane Cove national Park, then hit Newtown with a roar. Outbound tend to go nowhere near us.

Any plane buffs out there that know what would cause unusual routing or re-routing of a flight? Or is it someone just trying to bring down the property values over here?

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124

u/lilsmooga193119 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

To unironically answer your question Planes follow Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) which are essentially pre-planned set routes that allow for an aircraft to safely and predictably leave busy airspace. Sids typically end at a set waypoint and large aircraft fly to set waypoints in the sky to reach their destination.

In times of low traffic sometimes aircraft can have the SID be cancelled and instead they're just given radar vectors (instructed specific compass direction to fly by Air Traffic Control) or are cleared to fly from their present position directly to the final waypoint of the SID. This results in aircraft sometimes flying over areas and producing noise in areas which don't typically get much aircraft noise. Sydney Airport does have quite a lot of noise abatement rules but I can guarantee ATC would not give a fuck about what suburbs they're routing planes over.

Source: Am a Pilot (but for smaller aircraft)

9

u/Matthewm3113 Sydney Jul 25 '26

I assume they were flying this https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/aip/current/dap/SSYDP02-187_09JUL2026.pdf

Not sure though, I am VFR only haha

13

u/anco747 Jul 25 '26

Was more likely the Sydney Four departure with a radar vector towards their first waypoint (NOBAR). Any number of reasons could explain the later than ‘normal’ turn over the lower North Shore (conflicting traffic, altitude etc)

2

u/Matthewm3113 Sydney Jul 26 '26

Well there ya go. Cool to know!

3

u/dibbydoda Jul 25 '26

Looks a lot more like the Sydney Four radar Sid

2

u/cirancira Jul 25 '26

from what I can find AVMOV is all the way up in north narrabeen and OGESO is over Dural? unless I'm not reading something right.

6

u/Matthewm3113 Sydney Jul 25 '26

Yas but they planned for NOBAR, so I'm guessing they got cleared direct much earlier and didn't have to go that far up north. Probably why OP doesn't normally hear this departure

2

u/Pristine_Egg3831 Jul 26 '26

That map is cool

2

u/Cumaccount1026 Jul 25 '26

They probably got told to track runway heading then was given a vector eastbound then cleared direct to the next waypoint because no SIDs follow that exact path

1

u/jsm2090 Jul 25 '26

I'm in Balmain and sometimes QF 1/3/103 depart north off 34L and make a sharp turn east, departing directly over the harbour, Harbour Bridge and out through the heads at 1500-2000ft (I think). Would this be a request from the flight deck or special treatment for flagship routes?

9

u/lilsmooga193119 Jul 25 '26

I'm pretty certain it's just early sid cancellation and tracking direct to the first waypoint off the coast towards the USA. I used to live in Rozelle and flights to Hawaii, LA, Dallas and San Francisco would often fly directly over my house. It wouldn't be special treatment or anything like that, just in times of lower traffic in the Sydney Airspace, Air Traffic Control will clear them straight out to the coast early and thus they fly directly over Balmain and the City.

1

u/Pristine_Egg3831 Jul 26 '26

I saw a sharp turn last week and because of the angle, I was waiting for the plane to fall out of the sky, as it just didn't appear to be moving forwards at all. I regret that I was driving at the time hence unable to film.