I don't mean to dig up an old thread... but this one encouraged me to rejoin PPrune after 10 years.
Like many others, I too was charged $47 for a "landing" at YRTI without a wheel getting anywhere close to touching the ground. When I queried Avdata via email, they replied that it was "because the pilot called that he had entered the circuit and conducted a missed approach".
Despite the fact that even this claim is false (we were taking photos of an aircraft conducting a missed approach!) I started digging around to find what legislation gave the Rottnest Island Authority the power to charge people for airport (and airspace) use.
The legislation pertaining to landing fees at YRTI is the
Rottnest Island Regulations 1988. The relevant excerpt is below (highlighting mine):
7B. Aerodrome usage fees
(1) Subject to regulations 7C and 7D, the owner of an aircraft in
which persons are carried to the Island shall pay to the
Authority, for each occasion when the aircraft lands at the
Island, the aerodrome usage fee set out in Schedule 6 item 1.
(2) If the owner of an aircraft pays the applicable aerodrome usage
fee under subregulation (1) or annual payment under
regulation 7C, a person who is carried to the Island in the
aircraft shall be deemed to have paid the admission fee
prescribed by regulation 5.
[Regulation 7B inserted in Gazette 30 Dec 1994 p. 7348;amended in Gazette 29 Jul 2011 p. 3144.]
Sections 7C and 7D refer to annual payments in lieu, and exceptions. These are not relevant for an ad-hoc user.
Subregulation (1) clearly states that an aircraft has to land at the island *and* persons have to be carried to the island. It's a little unclear whether these "persons" must alight at the island, but subregulation (2) implies that a "person carried to the island" would ordinarily be subject to an island admission fee. It would be hard to argue that the admission fee is payable for someone who never exits the aircraft and enters the island.
After explaining this to Avdata (and receiving no reply) I magically had a reversal on my account.
I also mentioned that I could not find any documentation or reference by the RIA that Avdata was acting on their behalf to collect landing fees. Presumably they aren't a random scammer BUT HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW?
It seems pretty clear to me that:
- If your wheels do not touch the ground at YRTI, there is no fee payable.
- Even if you land at YRTI and nobody gets off the aircraft, you still probably do not have to pay.
I think there are many people who are paying for navaid training and/or missed approaches (and perhaps even circuit training) at YRTI that probably shouldn't be.
On a side note - Avdata's hit rate for false positives with my aircraft is now over 50%. They consume quite a lot of my time with requests for reversals. It's annoying, to say the least.
Disclaimer - I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice! I'm just sharing my experience.