While I know it’s June and this update was issued in April, I wanted to set myself a baseline of knowledge before I delved into the CAA CAP1789 update so I pressed on with the drone regulations as they were and then decided I’d go back and review this. The CAA has clarified many things in the recent update to CAP1789 and I just wanted to take an opportunity to highlight the parts I found most interesting:
The installation of a camera in/on the aircraft has no effect on the Class of the aircraft.
I was already aware of this but I think it would’ve been good to clarify here in CAP1789 that operators of unmanned aircraft should be registered if they operate an unmanned aircraft which is equipped with a sensor able to capture personal data (See Article 14)
From 1 July 2022 onwards, Open category unmanned aircraft that are placed on the EU market (i.e. new products introduced for sale in Europe) must comply with the product standards and be marked with the appropriate class Number (C0 to C4)
I had missed this point but have updated the blog post now to include it.
Maximum Take-Off Weight for aircraft without Class Marking can be taken as Flying Weight
I always thought this was a bit strange as legacy aircraft don’t really declare an MTOW and also how would a person determine the MTOW of a home built aircraft. Thankfully the CAA have clarified their position on this
Standard Scenarios (STS) STS will not become applicable until January 2022 at the earliest. UK will not be implementing STS and operators should not consider their use any further.
One of the biggest shocks for me, I previously expected PDRAs and STSs to have an equal footing in the UK market. But due to the potential effects of Brexit and time period before they can be used, the CAA has quite rightly decided not to prioritize these.
Light UAS Operator Certificate (LUC) will be implemented in the UK
I haven’t covered LUC yet and I’m glad I hadn’t because the CAA has weighed up the benefits of getting the process and governance in place for LUCs and have decided to point operators down the route of OAs for the time being instead.
Lighting - recent amendments to the IR and DR have introduced the concept of a green flashing light being fitted to unmanned aircraft for nighttime conspicuity.
This wasn’t clear before and it is great to see this clarification as otherwise, each manufacturer could have gone there own way in meeting this requirement.