A few days ago the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) released preliminary rules for UAVs and remote controlled drones, the 'Prototype' Commission on Unmanned Aircraft Operations, which are due to come into force by 2020. I have read the regulations in full, and whilst I live in hope that they simply represent a very early draft due for revision, in reality I fear they will have grave consequences for the RC modelling community within only a few short years’ time. At a stroke this document seeks to make an educational, entertaining and highly popular hobby illegal - or at least so inaccessible as to be a nightmare, if not impossible, for most common people to participate in.
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Reading through I naturally assumed I would find that these rules would be specifically applied to multi-copters or industrial and commercial operations or similar. It seems however that the bureaucrats want to with one sweeping set of rules ham-fistedly bunch all models together regardless of their type, make or purpose. In other words, these rules seek to cover everything from paper airplanes and toys, right through to almost military-spec drones, saying nothing of the glaringly obvious differences among these aircraft.
The 'prototype' regulations explain that there will be three main categories. The first, the 'open' category seems to be the most important to the RC world as the other two, the 'special' and 'certified' categories are designed for industrial and emergency service use.
The first ‘open’ category is subdivided into four further categories (stay with me here..); A0, A1, A2 and A3 – The first of these is absolutely free in that it doesn’t require the pilot to have any special licenses or for them to register themselves anywhere, however there are many extremely strict limitations that both the pilot and their UAV* are subject to. Fortunately there isn’t an age limit, so potentially even a toddler could fly in this category, but with what I hear you ask? Well, an aircraft up to a take-off weight of 250g (including batteries) which cannot not fly higher or further than 50 meters (150ft) from the pilot. Also its maximum horizontal speed must not exceed 15m/s (54km/h or 32mph) and the UAV must be able to be flown without any training. Oh, and finally it must not be capable of causing any serious injuries… Dear T-Rex 250 owners, you can forget about this category immediately.
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| This will not fit into A0 category... |
The rest of the ‘A’ subcategories require further varying levels of registrations and licenses. But don’t think these are all to be disregarded as simply administration. Your aircraft must meet some interesting technical requirements as well. For example in A1; you must register yourself (or your company) as an operator, although the operator isn’t necessarily the pilot. The operator is defined as the person or company responsible for the maintenance and upkeep and everything to do with the UAV that isn’t actually the flying itself. The pilot of the UAV can be a different person. This category doesn’t require any special licenses in order to fly however the UAV’s limitations are almost the same as in A0. The good news is the cap on the take-off weight is lifted from 250g to 25kg; however you – as the operator – will be required to display your registration number on the aircraft.
We’ll skip the rest of the categories for now because we are RC helicopter pilots, so obviously we want to know how we can fly our larger models like the Goblin 700, Gaui X7, Fusion 50 or T-Rex 600. Bad news, there is no how. Legally, you can’t. Let me explain…
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| Half of these could be illegal even in A3 category |
The highest category is A3 which requires a registered operator, a registered and uniquely identified aircraft (which in our case would be a helicopter), ‘geo-fencing’ support with real time flight parameters and identification broadcasting, a return to home function, and self-stabilisation. If you haven’t given up yet and you’ve already shelled out thousands of pounds on your RC heli fleet, you can forget any ideas about 3D flying. The regulations state that you are not to carry out any ‘reckless’ maneuvers – so that’s bye-bye to flying chaos then. It gets worse as this category doesn’t even allow for an on-board voltage higher than 24V (with a maximum of 6 cells) and you will be required to have a flying license. Oh, and if your model has a nitro engine? You may well be in more trouble, the regulations say nothing about fuel powered UAVs at all.
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| Bye bye nitro engine... |
Who knows how the aircraft controlling authority of the EU constituent country that you live in (the CAA in the UK for instance) will interpret these rules? If you’re a good lawyer perhaps you can call Roman rights: everything which is not forbidden is allowed… Which leads to the second question: will it be sufficient when the police come to seize your helicopter. And furthermore how would they go about doing it…?
As I see it, these regulations represent some people in a dark office somewhere in Brussels blacksmithing some rules together, on the strength of second hand information rather than experience. Why? Because something must be on paper. If there is a thing, the EU must have a law about it. The millions of people across Europe who enjoy this hobby – who live it, like us – will be handled as criminals if these ‘prototype’ regulations are enforced.
*Just to be clear, ‘UAV’ in the context of the ‘prototype’ regulations actually refers to any remotely piloted aircraft – be it helicopter, plane, ornithopter OR drone. Yes this refers to you, RC helicopter enthusiast who just flies a bit in the local park on weekends…
UPDATE!
I almost forgot it.
Download the prototype from here
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