Page 38 - World Airnews September 2020 Edition

DRONES DRONES

ulations, and fed this back to their respective ed for up to two years waiting for approval.

national authorities. South Africa was one of the ‘early adopt-

The success of the initial work performed ers’ of drone regulations. Other countries

by JARUS soon spread and to date JARUS (including the USA and the EU) opted to
membership has expanded to 140 members hold back on the promulgation of formal

across 59 countries. It includes membership drone regulations - taking more time to

and active participation by the South African prepare a workable and efficient system

Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA). and perhaps even use the opportunity to
This active participation by the SACAA in learn from the mistakes others had made.

international forums, including JARUS, played JARUS, in the meantime, progressed with

a significant role in the creation of the Part the development and refinement of their

101 RPAS Operating Regulations, which was proposed regulations - primarily in support

promulgated in July 2015. of the European environment - but other

Although a water-tight, robust and effec- nations have started to take notice of this.

tive system from a safety point of view, it The JARUS-proposed Regulatory Model is risk-
was modelled (like many early drone regula- based, slotting all drone operations into three

tions) on existing manned aviation regu- operational categories: Open, Specific or Cer-

lations, and the complexity of the process tified. Each Operating Category delineates the

placed undue pressure on both the Operator type of operation (and associated limitations WHO IS ANDRE P. MEREDITH?
THE EVOLUTION and the Regulator towards compliance. and restrictions) as a function of the level of Meredith is the author of The Drone

Safety Handbook. He has extensive
risk to Third Parties. This is a great way to man-
This has had severe repercussions on the

South African Commercial RPAS industry. As age the safety of drone operations regardless knowledge on the subject. He has
of the technological advances being made.
recently launched a new website to
OF CIVIL DRONE a result, many commercial RPAS operators by JARUS, ICAO and the European drone expand his services beyond the Drone
Another major change being promoted
simply elected to bypass the arduous, lengthy
Safety Handbook - see here: https://

and costly Remote Operator Certificate or ROC

he has partnered with a UK drone

unmanned aircraft. In essence, all unmanned
radar” – at risk of being prosecuted, of course,
The DJI Phantom 4 drone – a REGULATIONS application process and operate “under the community is a new system for the naming of www.mysafedrone.co.za/. In addition

consortium called Drone Major Group
but at least operating instead of being ground-

aircraft will be grouped as follows:

much more updated version (see here: https://dronemajor.net/

of the original Phantom 1 brands/drone-safety-services) who
Group 1: Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) market services on behalf of drone

By Andre P Meredith Group 2: Unmanned Aircraft Systems Large Unmanned Aircraft Systems (LUAS) service providers.

(UAS) or Drones Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS)

World Airnews guest technology and operations at the time, and The regulations (once promulgated) will The Certified Category will be reserved for The new process developed by JARUS

was often based on existing manned aviation

columnist SAAF rones started appearing on the civil legislation – simply because it was familiar ter- probably contain more details, but in essence large, complex operations utilising very large and being rallied for adoption by EASA, is

senior staff officer Dmarket towards the latt er half of the ritory with a proven and robust safety record. small UAS will be “capped” at a mass ceiling of and highly complex Type Certified RPAS (as but one of a series of changes being made
to “early drone regulations” by other major

25kg MAUW, while true RPAS will be only those
defined through the new nomenclature

The promulgation of formal drone regulations
previous decade, but it could be argued that it was

air certification and the appearance of the venerable DJI Phantom I in also gave rise to some new terminology, includ- systems requiring Type Certification, showing system). Operations within this Category aviation regulators. This includes the likes

of Transport Canada and the FAA, where
will require operation by individuals having
compliance with the requirements of ICAO An-

ing the term Remotely Piloted Aircraft System,
author of ‘The Drone January 2013 that served as the catalyst for the or RPAS, describing the drone system. It married nex 8 – think “unmanned Airbus A320s.” Large formal Remote Pilot Licenses and under aus- the lessons learned are being applied to
drone revolution. Whether this is true is not, one

Safety Handbook’ thing is certain: civil drone use has soared and the aircraft (the Remotely Piloted Aircraft, or UAS will be everything in-between. pices of Organisations having obtained Re- improve and streamline existing processes.
mote Operator Certificates (or equivalent). It
It is, however, the Categorisation system

RPA) with its ground-based elements, to take

The proposed Operational Categorisation

Andre Meredith looks seen exponential growth during the last five years, into account the complete Unmanned System. Model further addresses the operational nature will require full and formal oversight by the being prepared for the European operating
and it seems there is no end in sight to this trend.
environment which carries the most appeal,

Aviation Regulator and will in all probability

of the Organisation and helps to define addi-

In contrast, the term Remotely Piloted

at the new system of In fact, the last unofficial count indicated in Vehicle, or RPV, had been used throughout tional requirements such as drone registration, mirror existing manned aviation certification as it offers major fiscal and administrative

regulation of these excess of 45000 civil drones in South Africa the 1990s by some defence forces. The new specific operating limits, pilot competency levels and accreditation processes. benefits to commercial and recreational
drone owners, whilst still managing the haz-

and overall level of rigour required towards the
All drone operations not falling within the
alone, and in excess of a million in the USA.
term was quickly adopted by many aviation

unmanned aircraft These figures would include all machines used regulators, but this created a lot of confusion issuing of an appropriate flight authorisation. either the Open or Certified Categories will be ards associated with high-risk operations.
It also has the potential to relieve pressure

for both commercial and recreational purposes.

covered by the Specific Category. These opera-

The Open Category, for example, pro-
and what it means for This, of course, would be no cause for alarm amongst drone operators. vides a set of predefined operating limita- tions will be flown by pilots requiring a remote from the Aviation Regulator by significantly

Popular culture and the mainstream media

operators world-wide. if the objects of interest were earth-bound. But had, by then, cemented the terms “drone” tions (e.g. maximum aircraft take-off mass, pilot competency of sorts and be authorised reducing the amount of “hands-on” over-

sight, inspections and overall administration.

through the issuing of a more simplistic flight

maximum operating altitude, line-of-sight
the fact is - drones are aircraft in their own right,

and “UAV” in the minds of drone operators

and as such, regardless of what they are used throughout the world, and aviation regulators restrictions, time-of-day restrictions, limits authorisation by the Aviation Regulator. EASA is set to promulgate the new Cat-

for, they have the potential to be flown amongst were soon battling to partner with their target regarding proximity to members of the In order to help facilitate categorisation egory-based drone regulations before the

other aircraft, over private property or close to audience – in no small part due to the use of a public and so on). If your operating require- and help Operators determine whether they end of 2019. It would be advantageous for

unsuspecting bystanders. This, in turn, would foreign term for the aircraft in question. ments fall within these pre-set conditions fall within the Specific or Certified Categories, other authorities, including the SACAA, to

suggest that irresponsible, ignorant or reckless Be that as it may, the initial efforts to devel- you may fly within the bounds of the Open JARUS have developed a handy tool called investigate this model for possible adapta-

use of a drone could put it on a collision course op a regulatory framework for drone oper- Category without any additional oversight, the Specific Operations Risk Assessment, or tion to their operating environments.

with another manned aircraft which could endan- ations was in no small part spearheaded by authorisation or licensing from the Aviation SORA. Commensurate with the proposed It may still take some time to reach the

ger the lives of members of the public. Neither of the ground-breaking work performed by the Regulator. This would probably meet the legislative approach, the SORA is a risk-based optimal solution, but it is clear that world-

these scenarios have rosy endings. Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned needs of the entire recreational drone tool and helps the user to determine the level wide aviation authorities, regulators and

It did not take long for national aviation Systems (JARUS). JARUS was formed by a small sector and even a major segment of the of risk associated with the type of operations advisory bodies working hard towards the

regulators to figure this out and soon many group of experts from national European Aviation commercial sector. It could even meet the envisaged. Based on the result, the Operation development of new regulatory models to

started taking pro-active measures to try and Regulators facing a common problem: how to needs of as much as 90% of all civil drone is then either compartmentalised into the enable more effective and efficient drone

keep the unthinkable from happening. This led safely and effectively regulate the skyrocketing operations, leaving only the remaining 10% Specific or Certified Category. The Operator operations – without sacrificing safety. It is

to the creation of what could be called ‘early commercial drone sector. The small group of for detailed oversight by the Regulator. should then follow the regulatory instructions undoubtedly only a matter of time before the

drone regulations’, between 2013 and 2017. It experts met and pooled their knowledge and It all depends how the Open Category is and guidelines to meet the requirements of same processes are applied within context of

was underscored by the knowledge of drone started crafting practical guidelines for drone reg- defined through individualised legislation. the applicable Category. the South African drone landscape. Q

World Airnews | September 2019 World Airnews | September 2019
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