By Peter van Blyenburgh
In accordance with the decisions taken at the Drone REGIM meeting on 23 May 2019, and taking into account additionally received inputs, recommendations and guidance, this European drone community action has refocused its priorities (Training & Qualification; Operations; Awareness Creation; Standards; Standard Scenarios), revised the activities of its working groups and launched Round 2 of this initiative.
All Drone REGIM explanatory documents (Background & Evolution; Objective & Principles of Participation; Focus & Working Group Activities) are now available online (see: https://uvs-international.org/working-groups/). The first edition of the Drone REGIM Reference Document Library (185 documents from 35 sources) has been constituted and will be accessible to the participants on the group’s «sharepoint» collaborative work portal, which is currently being structured.
Participation registration, which is open to applicants from all countries, is now possible online (https://uvs-international.org/working-groups/drone-regim-participation-registration-form/). The deadline for participation registration is 13 September 2019. The election of the Working Group Leaders & Secretaries will take place between 16 & 27 September 2019. The election of the Focus Group Chairmen & Secretaries will take place between 30 September & 4 October 2019. The election results will be announced on 7 October 2019.
About Drone REGIM (REGulation IMplementation)
At the RPAS CivOps 2019 conference in Madrid, Spain on 23 & 24 January 2019, the conference delegates agreed on the formulation of the «Madrid Declaration of Intent». In the context of the new European Union (EU) drone regulation, and with the objective to contribute to European Union harmonization relative to the implementation of the EU drone regulation on a national level, the representatives of the European drone communities present at the conference stated their intent to endeavour to coordinate, cooperate, and share knowledge & experience.
The objective of this community action (instigated by UVS International) is to create a structure & work methodology permitting to federate European drone community members [with a focus on Small- & Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)] in multi-national working groups with the intent to produce consensually agreed on guidance documents, contribute to existing standards efforts, and, in coordination with National Aviation Authorities (NAAs), define consensually agreed recommendations on topics identified by the current drone community as having priority.
Drone REGIM bundles the following competencies: aeronautical information services, air navigation service providers, consulting services, drone operators, drone producers (systems), drone-related producers (sub-systems), flight schools, legal services, qualified entities, regulators, research & science, specialized media, technology clusters, test & demonstration ranges.
In the context of the implementation of the European Union’s new drone regulation, the purpose is to:
- a) Address regulatory-related matters that are the responsibility of the individual EU Member States;
- b) Contribute to the harmonization of the national approaches concerning these matters, taking relevant existing documents & best practices into account;
- d) Contribute to speeding up the European harmonization process;
- e) Propose a work methodology geared to SMEs (work principally online; minimize travel).
For more information contact Peter van Blyenburgh (pvb@rps-info.com)
