Jandakot sits right on the southern boundary of the Perth airspace.
We're only about ten miles south of Perth Airport.
And Pearce is just further north of that.
So, there's three groups of controlled airspace
all very close to each other.
Airspace-wise, it's really the departures
that catches people out -
going a little bit too close, departing a bit wide
and getting too close to those Perth airspace corners.
Occasionally, going outbound over Armadale
is the main hot spot area.
They will tend to climb too early.
They'll think they're a bit further ahead.
They don't want to be low and heading in towards the terrain,
so they'll tend to want to climb early,
and that will mean they'll clip that step there.
So, once they're approaching east of due north of Forrestdale Lake,
and you've got Champion Lakes there,
that's the general area that they can confirm their position.
They're well clear of that step, and then they can climb up to 3,500.
Otherwise, a bit further east as well there's a 3,500 step,
and they can penetrate that a little bit earlier
on their climb to 5,500 or 7,500.
They need to make sure that they're clear of those areas,
either Mount Dale or the Wungong Reservoir to the south-east
before they commence their climb beyond 3,500.
Aircraft coming from somewhere like Geraldton,
tracking south down the coast, they need to be mindful.
First of all, they'll come across the Two Rocks firing range.
There's instructions on the VTC and VNC on how to navigate that.
They'll then need to be careful of the 4,500ft step.
A lot of aircraft will be at 5,500 or 7,500 tracking south,
and may delay their descent a little bit too late.
So again, the hot spot there that they might penetrate.
The other thing is the 'Alkimios' wreck
on the coast there as a VFR navigation point.
It's pretty well eroded away now, and only on low tide and calm seas
will you probably see anything of it.
So again, just need to be mindful of their positioning there,
because they may be a bit further south than they actually realise.
Just around the Cottlesloe area there's a little 1,500ft lip
which some pilots can penetrate occasionally.
But generally, the lane of entry traffic,
everyone's at 1,000 or 1,500.
Restricted airspace tracking north, NOTAMs need to be checked.
If you're not sure, it's best that you just ask.
Contact Perth centre on the way up
and they'll tell you if it's active or not.
And again, the instructions on which route to take
are very clearly marked on the top of the VTC there.
Generally, in and outbound from Jandakot,
the most common mistake would be
transiting southbound and going through Romeo 162,
or northbound through Lancelin, which is Romeo 146.
We don't generally get too many things that aircraft are doing wrong
in terms of going through the regular Pearce airspace,
and the main reason for that
is because the Pearce airspace isn't normally available to civil aircraft
because it's an RA2 status airspace.
To avoid the airspace,
the best starting point is to read the NOTAMs.
Every time Pearce is active the NOTAMs are going to be raised
for all the airspace that's active.
And they are different, subtly,
each day, depending on what airspace gets used.
Lancelin's a different one,
because the custodian of the Lancelin airspace is the Navy.
So, when the airspace is activated
it's activated on a separate NOTAM,
not with the rest of the RAAF airspace.
And if we do need to stop fire for an aircraft
that's having a violation of controlled airspace up there,
we can't immediately do that.
So, it's a particularly dangerous VCA hot spot for us,
because they use that range for firing a lot,
from either ships or cannons on the ground.
And it's quite a dangerous bit of airspace when it is active.
So, the time it would take to get a check fire put in into that airspace
can sometimes be four to five minutes
depending on whether they can get contact with the ship
or with the guns that are shooting on the ground.
We do get quite a few airspace infringements by civilian aircraft.
We get between 30 to 40 airspace infringements a year
in the Pearce restricted airspace.
But these occur mainly in Romeo 162 and to the north in Romeo 146.
We don't generally get
too many airspace infringements in other areas,
because our other Pearce restricted airspace
is active almost all the time,
whereas Romeo 162 and Lancelin are activated only by NOTAM,
and it would be quite easy to miss
if you weren't checking your NOTAMs thoroughly.
All the guys in the RAAF are all qualified air traffic controllers.
They're not just there to control military traffic.
A lot of us have been elsewhere and controlled normal domestic airports.
If you do have a question or a problem, all you need to do is ask.
It's not a taboo airspace if you do require access to it,
you just need to have a clearance to begin it.
Our critical role is safety,
and that's the same with any air trafficker.
And if you are in trouble we're more than happy to help.
One of the big things is communication.
Difficult for us to communicate if pilots have their radio turned down.
If we need to pass a critical instruction,
the pilot who needs to hear won't be able to hear.
For us to know that you've understood the instructions,
those required parts or those required elements in AIP
must be read back to us
so that we know you've understood what we've said.
Those two elements are - keep your radio turned up
so we can give you the instruction, and the other point of that
is that if you are given an instruction
that the elements that are required to be read back in AIP are read back
so that we know that you've understood
the instruction that we've given you.
Delta 500 inbound received OK.
RADIO: Jandakot Tower. Maintain 1,500.
There are going to be times
when you are not going to be able to get your call in.
The initial call inbound to Jandakot,
whether it be on the coast or at Six South is,
if you get a response back from ATC,
that is your clearance to enter the control zone.
If you've not received that response from ATC do not barrel on.
Get your call in when you can
and ensure that you're listening out
so that you don't over-transmit other aircraft at the same time.
There's quite a big mix of aircraft here at Jandakot,
and that's probably only going to increase over time.
Jandakot Airport operates with fixed wing and rotary aircraft,
so it is important for fixed wing aircraft
to just be roughly familiar
with the instructions that the rotary aircraft are getting
so that they can keep an eye out
and maintain that situational awareness.
The tower will always give helicopter aircraft as traffic,
so you shouldn't not know where they are.
But things like turning crosswind too early,
that will cut off a helicopter in their standard circuit pattern.
Their circuit pattern is within the fixed wing circuit,
so just be really careful.
Always check your wing and be aware of helicopter traffic
before you do turn early.
Or if you need to, just request an early turn
and the tower will be able to advise.
At Jandakot, the helicopter operations
are similar to the fixed wing once we've taken off
When we depart Jandakot,
then we take off parallel the active runway.
And our departure altitude is the same as fixed wing,
which is 1,000ft.
And when we come back in to Jandakot,
we still come in at the same height as fixed wing at 1,500ft.
We descend inside the fixed wing circuit,
but still fly the same circuit pattern,
just inside descending to 1,000ft, making a normal downwind call
and then getting a clearance to land or a cleared visual approach
to our nominated landing point if the tower can't see it
if we're going to land at the hangar.
Victor 66 has been set up as a controlled airspace route
for student practice.
It looks like a VFR tracking route on the VTC
between the Lakes Mine, Helena River Reservoir and Canning Dam,
but it is not.
It's been purely set up
for students wanting controlled airspace exposure.
The student then would track to Canning Dam, get a clearance
and then track to Helena River Reservoir or the Lakes Mine
at, normally, 3,500ft.
And then, if they're coming back the other way,
they'd get a clearance to come in at the Lakes Mine,
Helen River Reservoir and then Canning Dam at 2,500ft.
So, clearance is required,
but it is not really a VFR tracking route.
Anybody departing to the east and north-east
or returning via the east or north-east to Jandakot
should remain to the east and south of Mount Dale
and at less than 3,500ft.
RADIO: Clear Victor 65. Maintain 1,500.