eu drone regs

Open vs Specific vs Certified

As I said previously, the rules that apply are determined by which category you fall into, so the aim of this post is to help work out which drones/operations fall into which.

Open Category

An off the shelf drone in an safe area may fall in the “Open” category

An off the shelf drone in an safe area may fall in the “Open” category

My current feeling is that this is the most well defined, documented and understood category. I also think this is where the majority of hobbyists and even some commercials (by today’s standards) will operate. Essentially if your drone and operation are compliant with the following then you fall into the Open Category:

  • Drone design is Compliant with the Delegated Regulation, Privately Built, or Placed on Market < 1 July 2022

  • < 25kg Maximum Take Off Mass

  • Remain a safe distance from people and do not overfly assemblies

  • VLOS (*caveat for follow-me or observer usage)

  • < 120m / 400ft Height (**caveat for obstacles and Model Gliders)

  • Not carrying dangerous goods or dropping materials

  • No autonomous flight

To expand on some of the Caveats.:

* for certain aircraft and operations in the Open Category the regulations allow flight of up to 50m from the Remote Pilot in “Follow-Me” mode OR when having an Observer situated alongside the Remote Pilot you may delegate VLOS to the observer so you can focus on the camera view.

** for flights within 15m of an obstacle you may fly higher than 400ft if you have permission from the owner of the obstacle and remain within 15m of that obstacle. But my understanding is that VLOS must still be maintained.

That’s the Open Category, in a nutshell. There are a further three sub-categories but I’ll go into these separately as these determine the rules that apply to each specific flight.

Specific Category

A drone flight in a city centre may fall into the “Specific” category

A drone flight in a city centre may fall into the “Specific” category

For those operations that site outside of the Open Category but not complex enough to sit in the Certified Category will be classed as Specific. The measures required to ensure safe flight are determined by a risk assessment. These risk assessments may be specific to your operation OR they may be based on standard scenarios already risk assessed. If using your own risk assessment you’ll need an Operational Authorisation (OA) from the UK CAA (caveat for Model Aircraft Clubs and Associations)***. If using a standard scenario (that has already been risk assessed and publised by the commission) then you only need to submit evidence and a declaration of compliance to those rules to the UK CAA.****.

In addition to the Standard Scenarios, the UK CAA are also using the concept of PDRAs (Pre Defined Risk Assessments), these appear to have a similar aim of the standard scenarios, i.e. less paperwork to send to the regulator to review and approve but these will require an OA, rather than just a declaration. I’m not claiming here that a decleration will be “less work” than an OA because you will have to satisfy the CAA that your decleration meets the requirements.

Again, I won’t cover the standard scenarios or pre-defined risk assessment here but will cover in a later post.

To expand on some more Caveats.:

*** Model Aircraft Clubs can operate in the specific category with an Authorisation (as opposed to an OA) if they have their own framework in place for safe operations and they have submitted these to the UK CAA.

**** Another scheme exists in the new regulations called a LUC (Light UAS Operator Certificate). I’ve not read this in too much detail but my understanding is that LUC holders can essentially authorize there own flights, but the requirements to get this LUC are very comprehensive and require things like a safety management system, training, manuals, etc. so I can’t imagine too many operators holding this status.

Certified Category

A drone delivering cargo or transporting passengers could be in the “Certified” category

A drone delivering cargo or transporting passengers could be in the “Certified” category

Certified operations present the highest risk and as such have the strictest rules associated with it. Operators require certification, pilots require licenses and aircraft must be certified as per the Delegated Regulation. If the operation sits in any of the following then it must meet the certified requirements:

  • over assemblies of people

  • transport of people

  • carriage of dangerous goods, that may result in high risk for third parties in case of an accident.

  • a risk assessment determines that safety can only be maintained if the operation is certified

I hope that’s useful. My next post will look at more detail on the Open Category.

Small Print: These posts are a summary only, include my personal interpretation and is not intended to be a replacement for reading the actual rules.

Where are the EU Drone Regulations documented?

I must’ve read hundreds of pages documentation and some of it is not easy to find. I won’t explain what each of them does in this post as this will come later. I’ll add new documents to this post as I find them.

Note these links may not be up to date! Check the official sources for the official version and the latest information.


COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2019/947 of 24 May 2019 on the rules and procedures for the operation of unmanned aircraft

PDF

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2019/947/oj

COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2019/945 of 12 March 2019 on unmanned aircraft systems and on third-country operators of unmanned aircraft systems

PDF

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2019/945/oj

Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and Guidance Material (GM) to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019-947 - Issue 1

PDF

https://www.easa.europa.eu/acceptable-means-compliance-and-guidance-material-group/amc-gm-implementing-regulation-eu-2019947

Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and Guidance Material to Part-UAS — Issue 1

PDF

https://www.easa.europa.eu/acceptable-means-compliance-and-guidance-material-group/amc-gm-part-uas

Opinion 05/2019 Standard scenarios for UAS operations in the ‘specific’ category

PDF

https://www.easa.europa.eu/document-library/opinions/opinion-052019

Easy Access Rules for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Regulation (EU) 2019/947 and Regulation (EU) 2019/945)

PDF

https://www.easa.europa.eu/document-library/general-publications/easy-access-rules-unmanned-aircraft-systems-regulation-eu

Opinion 01/2020 High-level regulatory framework for the U-space

PDF

https://www.easa.europa.eu/document-library/opinions/opinion-012020

CAP1789: The EU UAS Regulation Package – Outline

PDF

https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/modalapplication.aspx?appid=11&mode=detail&id=9135

CAP 393: The Air Navigation Order 2016 and Regulations

PDF

https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/modalapplication.aspx?catid=1&pagetype=65&appid=11&mode=detail&id=7523

The Air Navigation Order 2016

PDF (not this does not include any ammendments)

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/765/contents

Small Print: These posts are a summary only, include my personal interpretation and is not intended to be a replacement for reading the actual rules.

Welcome to my EU Drone Regulation Blog

My Inspire 1 contemplating it’s future as a “Legacy” drone!

My Inspire 1 contemplating it’s future as a “Legacy” drone!

Hello,

I’ve been maintaining No Fly Drones in my spare time now for over 4 years now and in that time I’ve seen several iterations of drone regulation changes. I always try and keep up with them, review regulatory documentation, legislation and guidance in order to ensure my site is as useful and up to date as possible but also as a drone operator myself, I need to know the rules in an operational context. But in those 4 years I think the biggest change I have experienced is the EU Drone Regulations on the horizon. Flight Restriction Zones come in a close 2nd place though!

There are reams of documentation out there and I’ll be honest, I’m struggling to get my head around it all, so I’m using this blog to try and capture my thoughts and help sort out all this information into something I can digest a bit easier. It’s not intended to be a replacement for reading the actual rules but I hope it will help me (and anyone reading this) know where to look for the information/rules I’m interested in.

At the start, this blog may be quite active in terms of posts but once I’ve covered everything I don’t expect to be posting daily, weekly, or even monthly, just when something new gets published and I’ve had a chance to read it, I’ll update my thoughts and interpretations here.

James