Introduction

Today small drones are proliferating in the airspace, even over urban areas. The European market was fragmented, because different national rules applied to drones below 150 kg, until 2019. However, the role of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) was extended in 2018 below 150 kg and EASA and common implementing and delegated rules, may enter into force in 2019.

This initial course on European rules for non-military Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS, RPAS; called “drones” by the media) provides the basis to put the emerging common rules on safety in context, which is a pre-requisite to fly drones safely and legally. In fact, also rules on security, enforcement, liability, insurance, privacy and data protection apply.

 

Course Content

The course breaks down into three parts: 

• the “disruptive innovation” represented by drones and the related societal concerns, including the mentioned security, privacy and data protection, liability and insurance;
• the evolving regulatory framework on the global scale, with which EU rules should comply; and
• the emerging EU common rules and related technical standards.

There are 11 lectures, at least 2 group exercises and 1 hour for final examination.

The 11 lectures comprise of:

1. Course introduction and objectives, including drone taxonomy
2. Drones = disruptive innovation for aviation
3. Societal concerns beyond safety (security, environment, , privacy and data protection, enforcement, sanctions)
4. Emerging provisions on security and enforcement
5. Liability and insurance based on Regulation 785/2004
6. Responsibilities of the drone operator for privacy and data protection, based on EU GDPR 2016/679
7. Drones in the Chicago Convention (ICAO) and its Annexes
8. Requirements from Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems (JARUS)
9. EASA policy for airworthiness certification of UAS
10. Performance-Based and Risk-Based Regulation
11. Emerging common EU/EASA rules on drones based on the New Basic Regulation 1139/2018

In addition to questions and answers at the end, but even solicited during the lectures and availability of the trainer during the breaks, group exercises are planned:

• Apply the Multi-Criteria Analysis;
• Explain EASA Special Conditions for UAS.

Learning Objectives

After completing the course, participants should be able to:

• identify, download and consult the emerging international and European rules for drones, including but not limited to safety;
• highlight main content of ICAO, JARUS, EU and EASA rules concerning non-military drones for oversight by a civil aviation authority or to develop, market or operate them;
• coordinate ATM issues concerning drones with regulators and ATS providers, based on common awareness of the basics and use of the same semantics;
• identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats from a business point of view in the evolving regulatory context.

Who should take this course

Aviation professionals desiring to become able to identify and list the content of the emerging common rules for non-military drones, including:

• Managers, rulemaking officials and inspectors of CAAs;
• Managers (including safety and compliance managers), remote pilots and other professionals of aviation industry desiring to further develop respective careers;
• Entrepreneurs involved, or planning to become involved, in drones or training of remote pilots, for which knowledge of the regulatory landscape is an enabler to develop business cases;
• Instructors and examiners of remote pilots;
• Personnel of Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) since drones have a significant impact also on Air Traffic Management (ATM).

Pre-requisites

• Good command of the English language; and
• University graduation (bachelor), or 3 years of experience in traditional aviation, or 1 year of experience on drones.

Duration

2 days, starting at 09:00 and ending at approximately 17:00 each day