The EU Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Regulation Package which comes into effect from 1 January 2021 requires drone operators to meet requirements laid out in three categories of operation: Open, Specific, or Certified.
Drone technology company SkyBound Rescuer has launched a free intelligent survey called the Drone License Finder which simplifies the process of selecting the correct category of operation for all EU drone pilots. The tool is sponsored by Flock, HALO Drones and Allan Panthera.
According to SkyBound Rescuer, drone pilots simply complete a series of 3 to 14 ‘yes/no’ questions about their drone and how they intend on flying it, to then receive their category/subcategory results and personalised guidance based on the answers they gave.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has chosen to pursue a tiered approach to drone regulations through their use of drone pilot categories: Open, Specific, and Certified – with the Open Category being broken down further into Subcategories: A1, A2, and A3. Whilst categorising drone pilots into categories and subcategories does prevent the drawbacks of a “one size fits all” regulation, it however brings with it regulation complexity and the challenge of deciphering which category applies specifically to any given drone operation.
The new regulations extend to 332 pages of EU legal documents (Implementing Regulation and Delegated Regulation) and EASA guidance document (Easy Rules for UAS Regulations). National Aviation Authorities of the countries that are adopting these regulations have also published separate guidance documents – for example, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have published CAP1789, which is a further 47 pages of reading.
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