The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has published a guide to clarify or complement a number of concepts relating to the flight of UAS in the open category and in the specific category. EASA already publishes the Guidance Material (GM) and the Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) that are integrated into the consolidated text of the European regulations for the flight of UAS although these guidelines should not be interpreted as guidance material adopted in accordance with Article 76, paragraph 3, of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 and therefore, they are not legally binding and should be considered only a working document that summarizes and disseminates the experience of applying the regulatory framework for drones to facilitate the application by the competent authorities, operators and addressees of Regulations (EU) 2019/945 and 2019/947.
The content of this guidance shall not be interpreted or used to contradict or modify the requirements of Regulations (EU) 2019/945 and 2019/947 and shall not be used in itself to justify the opening of non-compliance findings during monitoring and standardisation activities carried out by the Agency or by the competent national authorities.
The guidance addresses aspects such as visual range of vision (VLOS), crossing certain infrastructures such as roads and railways or aspects related to safety studies through SORA or operational authorisations for the specific category.
- VLOS flights:
Operating drones in VLOS means that the remote pilot can clearly scan the sky to detect the presence of other aircraft, be able to clearly see the UAS and prevent it from approaching other aircraft (manned or unmanned) or obstacles or people.
VLOS distance is affected by a number of factors such as:
1.- Visibility: the operational area and weather conditions must allow unaided visual contact with the UA and the presence of other aircraft to be detected in the volume where the UA operates. A recommended minimum visibility is at least 5 km.
2.- Size of the UAS
3.- Characteristics of the UAS such as the color of the drone (in relation to how different it is from the background color) and brightness of the UAS lights.
When planning a VLOS operation, the VLOS distance must be measured as the straight-line distance between the remote pilot and the aircraft, defining the terms ALOS and DLOS:
ALOS (attitude line of sight) and DLOS (detection line of sight) between which the maximum VLOS distance is determined according to the factors previously mentioned, by means of mathematical formulas (see attached document)
- Overflight of transport infrastructure:
The guide sets out guidelines for the flight of drones in the open category over moving vehicles, both on high-capacity roads such as motorways and dual carriageways and on railway tracks. Safety heights and distances are proposed depending on the subcategory in which the UAS operations are being carried out.
- Specific Category:
Guidelines are proposed for the preparation of aeronautical safety studies based on the SORA. Specifically, indications are given for determining the risk in the air (ARC) and guidelines for identifying an ARC-b airspace where at least 50% of manned aircraft are detected.
In addition, indications are given related to obtaining operational authorizations for the specific category within the concept of precise authorization or generic authorization, explaining the differences between both so that UAS operators can clearly request their operational authorizations.
This is a document that complements and clarifies certain regulatory aspects of interest to operators and pilots of unmanned aircraft or UAS, which you can download in the following link:
https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/document-library/easy-access-rules/easy-access-rules-unmanned-aircraft-systems-regulations-eu
