The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published new and amended procedures and guidance to further harmonise and implement the EU drone regulation.
Following the consultation of NPA 2021-09, EASA analysed and reviewed feedback received from stakeholders and consolidated the results in the newly published ED Decision 2022/002/R.
In particular, the decision addresses the following:
- Establishment of ‘geographical zones’ identifying EUROCAE ED 269 as the standard for the common unique digital format;
- Revised forms for the application and issue of operational authorisations in the ‘specific’ category and a detailed description of the process to allow cross-border operations (e.g operations in different EASA member states);
- Defining a list of training objectives for remote pilots operating in the ‘specific’ category. The drone operator is requested to select those that are more appropriate for its operation;
- New predefined risk assessment (PDRA) dedicated to Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations for linear inspections of infrastructures such as power lines or rail tracks.
More time is needed to continue the discussions with stakeholders on the amendments to Specific Operations Risk Assessment – SORA related to the design verification of drones. EASA intends to address this topic in a dedicated ED decision planned for Quarter 2 in 2022, together with the comment response document (CRD) providing the answers to all comments received.
