Rottnest Island (YRTI) is 18 nautical miles from Jandakot Airport, and it takes just 10 minutes by flight.
For our visiting pilots, below are some tips on navigating to Rottnest Island:
- Plan your route: YPJT (Jandakot) – FREM (Fremantle) – YRTI (Rottnest Island)
- At Jandakot Airport, depart via Fremantle. Maintain 1,000 feet until Murdoch University.
- Once out of Class D airspace (Murdoch University), switch to Perth Centre (135.25), climb to 1,500 feet and track towards Fremantle. Squawk VFR.
- Continue tracking towards Rottnest Island at Fremantle. You can choose to request traffic from Perth Centre. Look out for VFR traffic north and south bound along the coast.
- 10 miles east of Rottnest Island, switch to Rottnest CTAF (126.0) and make an inbound call. “Rottnest Traffic, <aircraft type> <callsign>, 10 miles east of Rottnest at <altitude>, inbound, estimating the circuit at time <time>, Rottnest”
- Overfly and join the circuit for Rottnest.
Coming back to Jandakot, below are some more tips:
- Plan route: YRTI (Rottnest) – POWR (Powerhouse) – ADWD (Adventure World) – YPJT (Jandakot)
- Departing from Rottnest Island, look out for westbound VFR aircrafts inbound to Rottnest Island.
- Once you have left the vicinity of Rottnest Island, you might wish to switch to Perth Centre (135.25) for better situational awareness as they will have all VFR aircrafts on radar, else you may elect to stay on Rottnest CTAF (126.0).
- Tune into Jandakot’s ATIS (120.9) before approaching Powerhouse.
- Switch to Jandakot Tower (118.1) at Powerhouse, and request for an inbound clearance.
- Once cleared to enter Class D, proceed according to ATC’s instructions.
Note: Rottnest Island is well known for full 90 degrees crosswind. Hence it is commonly used for crosswind training by instructors from Jandakot. Keep a good lookout for VFR traffic at all times at and around Rottnest Island. *Due to some pilots wishing to avoid the expensive landing fees, they might join the circuit and land at Rottnest without making any mandatory broadcast calls. Keep a lookout for these aircrafts as well.