(by Alessandro Tittozzi member of AIDR) Beginning of the year with many innovations for the world of drones: from 1 January 2021 the new European regulation issued by EASA for aviation safety came into force, which regulates unmanned aircraft systems. For Italy, ENAC issued the UAS_IT which accepts the provisions of EASA on 4 January 2021, but there is still a lot of excitement these days due to the many clarifications requested and the points still not exhaustive of the regulation issued by the Italian authorities, to the point that the online license on the ENAC website has also been temporarily suspended.

Downstream of this, in the various specialized sites on drones or recognized flight schools, tables and FAQs have multiplied to try to resolve the many doubts, to which I refer interested readers to get more specific.

In this article I will expose the main novelties of the regulation, trying to analyze the opportunities and difficulties resulting from its adoption. The goal is to provide the reader, who wants to approach this world, with useful tools to be able to make an informed purchase in terms of product and timing, the latter point not to be underestimated given the economic effort required to purchase a drone. .

To date, a user who wants to approach the world of air flight with European UAS remotely operated aircraft must know the terms of 15 legal references divided between these various regulations and directives. The main ones are: UAS-IT Regulation, Regulation (EU) n. 2018/1139 "Basic Regulation", Regulation (EU) no. 2019/947 "Implementing Regulation", Regulation (EU) no. 2019/945 "Delegated Regulation", Regulation (EU) no. 2015/1018 and Jar-Del-WG6-D.04 "Jarus guidelines on Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA)".

Let's make a brief legislative history of the fundamental standards.

In July 2019, 2 regulations governing the flight of drones came into force at European level: the EU Implementing Regulation (RE) 2019/947 on the operation of unmanned aircraft systems and the EU Delegated Regulation (RD) 2019/945 on design and manufacturing requirements. On December 31, 2020, these rules became applicable also in Italy, invalidating the national regulations on operations with UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System (EASA)), also called SAPR (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System with the respective remote device ( ENAC)), except for the operations that fall within the provisions of Article 2 paragraph 3a of EU Regulation 1139/2018 and the aspects that remain within the competence of the Member State. ENAC on January 4, 2021 published the UAS-IT Regulation, applicable from December 31, 2020, which governs what is within the competence of the Member States.

These first elements already show how this sector also suffers from a regulatory burden which produces the effect of having many domestic pilots often unaware of everything they should know and of making the growth of this sector less vertical. Despite this, for those who want to start using these devices, the first three regulations are essential.

Let's see the first fundamental principle, introduced by the RE, of the new European legislation issued by EASA: the rules and procedures applicable to unmanned aircraft operations must be proportionate to the nature and risk of the operation or activity and must be adapted to operational characteristics of the unmanned aircraft concerned and the characteristics of the operational area such as population density, surface characteristics and the presence of buildings.

One of the novelties is therefore that in this new regulatory scenario the distinction between commercial and recreational transactions is no longer valid and instead 3 fundamental categories for transactions are defined, based on an increasing level of risk: the open category, the specific category and the certified one. These categories include different regulatory approaches depending on the type of flight: from VLOS (Visual Line of Sight) of visual flight, up to IFR (instrument flight rules) of instrument flight.

The characteristics that allow us to identify the three categories, in short, can be summarized as follows:

  • open category: these are low-risk operations, no authorization is required, always in VLOS (visual flight), maximum flight height mt. 120, take-off weight <25kg, compliance with industrial standards of the RD, therefore having CE class marking (I will return to this last point shortly). This category includes 3 sub-categories A1, A2, A3 - based on the distance to be kept from people in relation to the weight of the aircraft - which introduce further limitations. Under no circumstances can operations be carried out on gatherings of people. If you do not meet all the requirements of the "open" category then you fall into the "specific" category.
  • Operations in the "specific" category include operations that present a higher risk and for which an in-depth risk assessment (SORA) must be carried out in order to indicate which requirements are necessary to ensure the safety of operations, such as the transport of goods . This category allows BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) operations, that is, out of the pilot's field of vision. No take-off mass or altitude limits are imposed in this category. An authorization from the national aviation authority is therefore required on the basis of the risk assessment drawn up or a declaration by the operator in the case of standard operations.
  • In case of high-risk operations, we enter the “certified” category, for which the classic aviation rules apply. This category includes all those operations carried out at high altitudes with

Drones, Europe and regulations: many news

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