CASA/Airservices document subscription PRices

[ms747]

gday all

just wondering what all you guys thoughts are on the increase in the prices for CASA/Airservides publications.

i frankly dont know how they can justify the price hike for example it now costs $169.95 for the CAR amendment service for teh year! and almost $250 to purchase the document to begin with! i beleive i paid $80 dollars when i first bought mine and aroudn 50 a year for renewals , i dont know how it can increase this much in such a short time frame.

i recnetly got my renewal document for:

the CAR, CAO, AIP, ERSA and DAps a total of $454.95 for the year!

i can understand 109 dollars for the ersa as you are gettin a bound printed document , but for the rest where most of the changes are merely changing a date on the bottom of the page seems rediculous!

Furthermore the Amount of paper used on these amendments which as mentioned above seem hardly necessary is rediculous

sorry if i sound like im complaining, it has just kind of got me ticked off as CASa seems to always get away with price increase especially with Air CRew exams these days!

i spoke to sirservices on the matter of these prices and they merely shrugged it off as something that CASa implemented, stating that they were operating the amendmnet services at a Loss, i am yet to take it up with casa


your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

cheers

matt

[NAMPS]

That's ironic.

I was constantly being slagged off for having a subscription to Jeppesen (one of the reasons was that they were too expensive). Now my Jepps are looking a whole lot better value!

My only concern is that Airservices will pass that cost on to Jepps and in turn me!!

[ace4bar's girlfriend]

ms747

You must have realllllly big typing fingers.

ps I agree with the content of your post.

[Truckmasters]

Maybe you should consider whether you need them in paper form. CASA is also offering a CD version of most of the documents. Obviously that won't help for in aircraft pubs but it certainly makes the bookshelf a lot lighter.
http://www.casa.gov.au/avreg/rules/cd_lib/index.htm

[ITCZ]

I can suggest an even better idea.

Buy yourself an apple 12" iBook or an IBM thinkpad for around $1,500.

Maybe even buy a second hand laptop for much less.

(I recommended the above because they are small, have 5+ hours battery life and weigh around 2kg all up)

Then go on to the net and download all those documents (maybe minus ERSA, have not tried that as I use jepps)

FOR FREE!!!!!!

It will take up less space and weigh less than the binders. It will all fit in your navbag. Print out the stuff that you need. And because it is in your computer, you can use search functions to find bits and pieces.

[Pinky the pilot]

I telephoned the documents section when the prices first rose dramatically just over twelve months ago to query just why there was such a large rise.
Got the expected spiel....' cost recovery, blah blah etc etc' but the one statement that really got me was.....
".........but really you pilots have had it too cheaply for ages now....."

You only live twice. Once when
you're born. Once when
you've looked death in the face.

[Atlas Shrugged]

I too received an invoice in the post yesterday from ASA detailing my current subscriptions namely CAR's, CAO's, AIP, ERSA and DAPs. For a twelve month amendment service to the regs the cost is $169 (up from $52 last year) and for the CAO's and AIP's, $76 which are both up around 55% from last year. When I queried this with them this morning I was told that the reason was that because ASA distribute on behalf of CASA and they were running at a loss, substantial price rises were necessary to recover costs. No other explaination or justification was given.

I've decided to renew the only the AIP, ERSA & DAPs. The others I can access from the net. Even the CD costs $216 a year and there's nothing on it that can't be downloaded from web.

You can download the Act, Regs and all of the other Legislation from here:

http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/0/159/top.htm

Perhaps everyone should think about renewing only what you need for operational purposes and tell 'em yo jam the rest.

[Erin Brockovich]

Know someone who sold an expired ERSA on ebay a while back for $9. Not worth the effort but is was bloody funny.

[Obiwan]

It will take up less space and weigh less than the binders. It will all fit in your navbag. Print out the stuff that you need. And because it is in your computer, you can use search functions to find bits and pieces.

Batteries always go flat at the most inopportune time. Then you have to wait for the bloody thing to boot too. Tried putting them on my Palm Pilot (m505) but the loading is too slow and the screen too small

Know someone who sold an expired ERSA on ebay a while back for $9. Not worth the effort but is was bloody funny.

Damned - and all this time I've been giving mine away.

[runamok69]

Got a shock myself recently when I decided to get a complete set from the local pilot supply shop. The shop said that within a few months of the price rises, their turnover for these docs was down to 20% of what they used to sell...and this was dropping. People apparently share the docs now or just sell them to others as required. Goes to show the depth of intelligence at this section for Air Services. If anything, the docs should be cheaper to encourage more people to have them and thus be a little more familair with the contents.

[Not_Another_Pot]

At the moment you can get everything off the net for nothing. The only thing I buy is the ERSA, all the DAP's etc come off the net and are always current.

I bet when they see the drop in sales and increase in hits that the net service goes *poof*

NAPster

[Pinky the pilot]

NAPster; No bet! The word I hear is that a lot of PPLs who only fly once a month or so are'nt even bothering with any documents at all except for a purloined/borrowed ERS. As for me, well the Jeppesen option is really no longer much of an option, but more of a necessity.

You only live twice. Once when
you're born. Once when
you've looked death in the face.