EASA live stream — The new design verification process for authorising drone operations in the “specific” category

As already advanced we will hold a live stream on the 7^th of May 2021 from 10:00 - 11:30 AM (CET) - for the professional users on the specific category.

The subject is “The new design verification process for authorising drone operations in the “specific” category - SAIL III and IV”.

Advertising of the events in your country

Within your possibilities, we would appreciate if you could advertise the event amongst the commercial drone operators you can reach. We would do the same in advance using social media and our website.

• Know

For the ‘specific’ drone category, an operational authorisation issued by the competent authority of registration in a Member State is required, unless the operation is covered by a standard scenario. This operational authorisation will be based on the outcome of the risk assessment conducted in accordance with SORA (see AMC1 to Article 11 Regulation (EU) 2019/947). The guidelines on “the new design verification process for authorising drone operations in the “specific” category - SAIL III and IV” provide indications on the process applied by EASA for the design verification of drones used in these operations.

Without going to much in the technical details, we will focus during the live stream on the responsibilities, process and to specify also the follow-on requirements in terms of registration and continuing airworthiness.

• Feel:

That the live stream is addressing the many requests EASA received from NAAs, commercial drone operators and manufacturers on how to issue an operational authorization for this segment of drones in the specific category. We want to connect with the viewers and answer their questions.

• Do:

For the whole professional drone’s community to understand these new guidelines, the technical terms involved, the broad steps in the process and any other aspects when planning a professional business with a drone or fleet or drones in this solicited niche of commercial drones. During the live session we will focus on the approval process for the authorisation of the operation and explain what and who does what.

• Approach:

We will try to minimize the technicalities and make it as clear to understand as possible both for the industry, operators and NAAs. Likewise, this will be a good opportunity for each of these stakeholders to know the role the other plays in the process.

• More follow-on live streams:

The EASA Drone’s team will organize a second live stream in which we go into more details and show an actual concrete example, going through the full assessment process from beginning to end.

• Format:

40 minutes from EASA on the 40 minutes of questions. It will be in English and live.

• After the live stream:

The sessions will be recorded and accessible afterwards. The most relevant questions will be answered live. All will be answered in writing soon after the event. Both the video and material will be posted on the EASA drone’s website.

• System:

We will use our EASA Youtube channel for the broadcast and publicize the event through EASA’s LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

• What next?:

We will provide soon a link to the event in our EASA website where viewers can subscribe and find some promotional posters.