This is a fairly short post just to introduce the concept of the PDRA. PDRAs are not stipulated in EU law like the other areas I’ve covered. PDRAs have been created by the UK CAA. They sit somewhere between a full Specific Operational Risk Assessment (SORA) required for an Operational Authorisation (OA) and a Declaration to a Standard Scenario (STS). Like an STS, they consist of pre-completed risk assessments, however, they have been done by the CAA rather than the EU. The UK CAA will allow you to apply for an OA with a lesser amount of documentation. The PDRAs will contain the risk mitigation measures that the CAA requires you to adhere to in order to minimize the risk. These will be published in CAP722. The first one (UKPDRA01) will align with the current PfCO permissions and requirements. EASA is also publishing PDRA’s, these are documented in the AMC to the IR.

I’ve been trying to understand why we have PDRAs vs STSs. I guess both have the benefit of reduced paperwork but I think the STSs are quite rigid, being set in law. STS also has a set scope that has been set out in law too (see previous posts on specific here). So I think the benefit of PDRAs really comes from giving the regulator much more flexibility to set their own boundaries.