Whoa.
So how does the 'mark up on landing fees' work? Whatever the rates (pretty steep for me, having flown fixed wing or rotary in the USA and even there, for cheeeep), they should invoice the actual rates payable to airport authority/owner/whatever.
Without people flying their aircraft, there'd be no landing fees to pay, so it should be an inherent part of customer service.
I read that many GA pilots aren't too happy with RAC.
I'm heading to Perth in two months, do some gliding and rotary theory/conversion, but at those rates in Australia, I better stick to getting multi commercial instrument and FI in the USA and do quick conversion somewhere at smaller airport away from Jandakot, even if I end up flying helicopters in there.
I saw one of the Eastern side of Australia's school with 250/hr dual rates, which is what I can pay for old twin middle of nowhere in USA.. :-) Not that useful to have too much time in Geronimo Apache, as most schools seem to ask for 10hrs PIC on Seminole or Duchess for the META.
The way the training prices are (and I don't blame schools, really), it's almost comparable to UK prices with the high VAT (akin GST, but also for comm training).