Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Q: The regulation has entered into force by publication in the Official Journal
on June 11, 2019. Will there be any immediate effects?
There will be very limited effects in 2019, as most of the changes will take
place in 2020 and the years to come due to the transition period in part of
the rules.
Q: Does the European Regulation cover all and every aspect of drone
deployment?
The European regulation sets a common frame for rules across Europe, but
there are still details that will have to be applied by national authorities
across Europe. I.e. national authorities have the authority to determine the
details, such as the specific airspace where drones are not allowed to go, or
which organisations are authorised to train and qualify drone pilots, and what
exactly that training should touch on. Compare it to the rules on the road
today: you must have a driving license, and you can use it across Europe, but
it may be very different where and how you obtain it between different
countries.
Q: Now looking at the new Regulation: in which way does it differ from the
current national regulations?
The EU regulation has taken a risk centric approach as far as possible. Several
states have applied the same principles in the past years, so in reality it may
not introduce big changes. What is new in some jurisdictions is that the
regulations cover both aviation aspects (air-air and air-ground risk), security
concerns, privacy aspects and environmental concerns. That it is risk based
means that the nature of the operation is not considered as key to the risk.
Commercial and recreational pilots do enjoy the same rights and obligations
and can operate in the Open, specific and certified categories if they fulfil the
criteria.
- Weight of drone
- Noise pollution
Q: Let’s look at the single categories. What are these and how are they
determined?
Q: You said the risk assessment is a mix of weight and proximity to people.
This sounds like a matrix system to categorise the drones. How does that look
like?
The lightest drone relevant for commercial users is C1, meaning < 900g
allows flights close to people but not directly over assemblies of people or
expected uninvolved persons. C2 up to 4kg will be applicable for many
commercial operations. It allows to fly at a safe distance from people and
needs to have the option to reduce speed down to 3km/h. This could be
mapping of a construction site outside urban areas with a P4RTK. C3 is the
heaviest category of off-the-shelf products for professionals: to be in the
open category the pilot needs to operate in safe distance from urban areas.
Inspection of wind turbines in remote area with the M210 RTK is a typical
example. This mix opens up the doors for many inspection and surveying
tasks to be authorisation-free and this is an improvement for pilots and
enterprise organisations.
Q: Many commercial operations will still fall into the Specific Category. How
big will the effort be to receive operational authorisation?
So-called standard scenarios (STS) will be created that should cover most
operations. The operator has to declare or demonstrate that the use case is
falls within an STS. If not, a full SORA assessment is mandatory. STS
describes the mitigation measures and the technical requirements. As for now
the STS are still in the making and we expect two sets of STS by the end of
2019. We consider the development of STS to be a big challenge which has
to be solved by the European regulation to achieve legal certainty once the
transition periods are over. A standard scenario could be aerial mapping over
a populated area or linear infrastructure inspection near urban areas as well
as it could be emergency service use of drones.
Until July 2020 pilots can still operate under the current national regulations.
They can still apply for a permit or exemption based on these regulations.
From July 2020 onward you can still use previously obtained permits and
exemptions up to July 2022. After July 2022 it is only the EU regulations that
are valid.
Yes, this requirement for public safety operations is already included in the
Opinion document of the European Aviation Safety Agency. We assume that
government entities will be entitle to operate independent of drone class and
category.
Q: Do you see other changes which will make operations easier for
commercial users?
The uniform maximum height of 120m will make operations easier as well as
it is a bit higher than what some countries currently allow. Automated and
autonomous flights will be more easily accessible and as the main risk is
defined by people and not buildings, operations in urban areas will become
more feasible.
Q: As a final say: what would you consider to be the biggest challenge on the
way to 2022 and what would you name the greatest benefit for the
commercial drone community?
The greatest challenge is to ensure that the European states apply the
regulation equally and in the same spirit as it was written. Until now there
has been very little coordination on drone regulations and some states have
even used that to build up a national industry. In order to achieve a
functional market, then these tendencies will have to be overcome. If we
manage to do that, then I see the benefits as endless and there is great
prospect of real commercial uptake of drones: Users have the entrepreneurial
spirit and desire to go beyond where we are now; Industry can deliver the
platforms to do so and finally we have the rules permitting it.
DJI is a global leader in developing and manufacturing civilian drones and
aerial imaging technology for personal and professional use. DJI was founded
and is run by people with a passion for remote-controlled helicopters and
experts in flight-control technology and camera stabilisation. The company is
dedicated to making aerial photography and filmmaking equipment and
platforms more accessible, reliable and easier to use for creators and
innovators around the world. DJI’s global operations currently span across the
Americas, Europe and Asia, and its revolutionary products and solutions have
been chosen by customers in over 100 countries for applications in
filmmaking, construction, emergency response, agriculture, conservation and
many other industries.