Look very carefully at your Airservices bill before you sign.

[Matt-YSBK]

Hi All,
I just received my Yearly Light Aircraft Option form. Since they introduced this a few years back that is the option I have been doing. It's been going up steadily in the scheme of things I have been busy and haven't relay taken a lot of notice of it. I dropped it on my accountants desk with a heap of other bills and was about to walk away when the total figure jumped up from the desk at me. WTF!! i said. That's more then my last 100 hourly. Some quick sums suggested that the amount of flight's they said i was doing was putting my flying about once a week all IFR and with the amount of hours I did in the last 12 months each flight was way shorter then I ever fly. There is no way this figure could be even remotely correct. Most of my flights are VFR and attract no fee's or less then $5 a flight. I would have to do more then 150 normal flights to make up this Crazy figure they had obviously pulled out of some random number generator at ASA.

I suggest all of you take a long hard look at this form before you sign on the dotted line. Also look at the website. Airservices Australia - General Careers (http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/pilotcentre/avcharge) There are some calculators where you can put in some of your normal flights and compare to the light aircraft option.

[Jabawocky]

And knowing what I know......... thats GOLD! :}

[Jabawocky]

Its lucky I don't get a surcharge for supersonic flight, landing and airways charges from Victoria and FNQ within minutes of each other...... not even the RAAFies can do that!:}

[Tankengine]

My glider used to get bills all the time for airports it obviously did not go to.:ugh:

A well written letter explaining that any more incorrect bills will be treated by my lawyers as harassment seems to have fixed that!:E

[VH-XXX]

My rego is not an easy one to confuse and be mistaken for using and often centre mistake the way I say it for another rego, so there's NO DAMN EXCUSE, PLEASE STOP USING MY REGO, I'M SICK OF CALLING THE AIRSERVICES HELP DESK AND SPEAKING TO SOME IT SUPPORT GUY ! arrrggghhh. Use BBQ or something again like everyone else used to!

[Old Akro]

Yep. Got mine today and ASA are saying it flew about 3 times as many flights last year as it actaully did. They're off with the fairies.

[PlankBlender]

Hmm, reading this I'm no longer surprised that it apparently costs ASA more to collect airways charges than what they manage to rake in from GA :eek: This from a usually well-informed source:ugh:

[goin'flyin]

Surprisingly, ours was pretty good.

They did still have an aircraft on there that we sold 12 months ago, but for the current aircraft, very accurate.

From the above posts, looks like we might have been in the minority.

[Joker 10]

Gotta say mine is very accurate for each aircraft. I will pay the LAO

[Jabawocky]

Yeah and joker10 if you stop using mine your bill might go up too!:}

Seriously I have never had a problem so far, but it is more likely the CTAF's and the AVDATA or similar invoices that the errors will occur. Especially those of you with scratchy radio/headsets and poor radio voice!

The temptation to use Oscar Juliet Alpha or Oscar Queebec Alpha at a place like Toowoomba is ......... well........ one day it might get the better of me!:}

[Old Akro]

It turns out our issue is that the aeroplane is kept an an airport adjacent to a GAAP airport. We fly there regularly for maintenance, etc. According to the arrival costing form on the ASA website its a 74 cent charge each time. However, the LAO still counts it as a flight for the calculation of the annual fee and used as a multiplier against some sort of average flight cost.

Our aeroplane didn't do much IFR in the last year, so I can calculate the two figures. Paid individually, our ASA charges (according to the website) were $121.37 The LAO is $474.94.

Its worth considering your flight mix.

[Old Akro]

As an addendum, I just did a "budget" for next year using the ASA calculator. With multiple flights landing at a primary airport and regular 1000nm flights, I still can't get within $100 of the LAO. I can't see the scenario where it would be good value to us.

[VH-XXX]

There was talk a while back on here that it was SOP to use the head of CASA at the time's personal rego's. I don't think you'd get away with that for long :bored:

Based on the newspapers today with the stories about K-Rudd's excessive flying, you could just use his rego if it was civil and nobody would notice :ok:

[Matt-YSBK]

Akro:
I think that may have something to do with it. Im based at a GAAP and looking at the numbers perhaps there calculation may have something to do with it. In any case it makes no sense at all for me to pre pay this. Sorry Air Services you can charge me monthly.

[Two_dogs]

My LAO just arrived in the mail.
Last year $1428
This year $4023
If my math is correct that's a 181% increase

Add this to ...

$ for a copy of licence at each renewal
$ processing fee for medical certificate
$ ASIC cards
$ DAMP program
$ Safety Management System
$ Fluro jackets airside (not so much the dollars, just the wank factor)
$$$ One litre of avgas at YLHR $2.65 + GST

I could probably find a few more if I thought about it.
I'm just :yuk::yuk::yuk::yuk:

Two(+GST and associated fees)Dogs