‘unmanned aircraft system’ (‘UAS’) means an unmanned aircraft and the equipment to control it remotely;

‘unmanned aircraft system operator’ (‘UAS operator’) means any legal or natural person operating or intending to operate one or more UAS;

‘assemblies of people’ means gatherings where persons are unable to move away due to the density of the people present;

‘UAS geographical zone’ means a portion of airspace established by the competent authority that facilitates, restricts or excludes UAS operations in order to address risks pertaining to safety, privacy, protection of personal data, security or the environment, arising from UAS operations;

‘robustness’ means the property of mitigation measures resulting from combining the safety gain provided by the mitigation measures and the level of assurance and integrity that the safety gain has been achieved;

‘standard scenario’ means a type of UAS operation in the ‘specific’ category, as defined in Appendix 1 of the Annex, for which a precise list of mitigating measures has been identified in such a way that the competent authority can be satisfied with declarations in which operators declare that they will apply the mitigating measures when executing this type of operation;

‘visual line of sight operation’ (‘VLOS’) means a type of UAS operation in which, the remote pilot is able to maintain continuous unaided visual contact with the unmanned aircraft, allowing the remote pilot to control the flight path of the unmanned aircraft in relation to other aircraft, people and obstacles for the purpose of avoiding collisions;

‘beyond visual line of sight operation’ (‘BVLOS’) means a type of UAS operation which is not conducted in VLOS;

‘light UAS operator certificate’ (‘LUC’) means a certificate issued to a UAS operator by a competent authority as set out in part C of the Annex;

‘model aircraft club or association’ means an organisation legally established in a Member State for the purpose of conducting leisure flights, air displays, sporting activities or competition activities using UAS;

‘dangerous goods’ means articles or substances, which are capable of posing a hazard to health, safety, property or the environment in the case of an incident or accident, that the unmanned aircraft is carrying as its payload, including in particular:

‘payload’ means instrument, mechanism, equipment, part, apparatus, appurtenance, or accessory, including communications equipment, that is installed in or attached to the aircraft and is not used or intended to be used in operating or controlling an aircraft in flight, and is not part of an airframe, engine, or propeller;

‘direct remote identification’ means a system that ensures the local broadcast of information about a unmanned aircraft in operation, including the marking of the unmanned aircraft, so that this information can be obtained without physical access to the unmanned aircraft;

‘follow-me mode’ means a mode of operation of a UAS where the unmanned aircraft constantly follows the remote pilot within a predetermined radius;

‘geo-awareness’ means a function that, based on the data provided by Member States, detects a potential breach of airspace limitations and alerts the remote pilots so that they can take immediate and effective action to prevent that breach;

‘privately built UAS’ means a UAS assembled or manufactured for the builder's own use, not including UAS assembled from sets of parts placed on the market as a single ready-to-assemble kit;

‘autonomous operation’ means an operation during which an unmanned aircraft operates without the remote pilot being able to intervene;

‘uninvolved persons’ means persons who are not participating in the UAS operation or who are not aware of the instructions and safety precautions given by the UAS operator;

‘making available on the market’ means any supply of a product for distribution, consumption or use on the Union market in the course of a commercial activity, whether in exchange of payment or free of charge;

‘placing on the market’ means the first making available of a product on the Union market;

‘controlled ground area’ means the ground area where the UAS is operated and within which the UAS operator can ensure that only involved persons are present;

‘maximum take-off mass’ (‘MTOM’) means the maximum Unmanned Aircraft mass, including payload and fuel, as defined by the manufacturer or the builder, at which the Unmanned Aircraft can be operated;

‘unmanned sailplane’ means an unmanned aircraft that is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its fixed lifting surfaces, the free flight of which does not depend on an engine. It may be equipped with an engine to be used in case of emergency;

‘unmanned aircraft observer’ means a person, positioned alongside the remote pilot, who, by unaided visual observation of the unmanned aircraft, assists the remote pilot in keeping the unmanned aircraft in VLOS and safely conducting the flight;

‘airspace observer’ means a person who assists the remote pilot by performing unaided visual scanning of the airspace in which the unmanned aircraft is operating for any potential hazard in the air;

‘command unit’ (‘CU’) means the equipment or system of equipment to control unmanned aircraft remotely as defined in point 32 of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 which supports the control or the monitoring of the unmanned aircraft during any phase of flight, with the exception of any infrastructure supporting the command and control (C2) link service;

‘C2 link service’ means a communication service supplied by a third party, providing command and control between the unmanned aircraft and the CU;

‘flight geography’ means the volume(s) of airspace defined spatially and temporally in which the UAS operator plans to conduct the operation under normal procedures described in point (6)(c) of Appendix 5 to the Annex;

‘flight geography area’ means the projection of the flight geography on the surface of the earth;

‘contingency volume’ means the volume of airspace outside the flight geography where contingency procedures described in point (6)(d) of Appendix 5 to the Annex are applied;

‘contingency area’ means the projection of the contingency volume on the surface of the earth;

‘operational volume’ is the combination of the flight geography and the contingency volume;

‘ground risk buffer’ is an area over the surface of the earth, which surrounds the operational volume and that is specified in order to minimise the risk to third parties on the surface in the event of the unmanned aircraft leaving the operational volume;

‘night’ means the hours between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight as defined in Implementing Regulation (EU) No 923/2012 ( 1 ).

UAS operations in the ‘open’ category shall not be subject to any prior operational authorisation, nor to an operational declaration by the UAS operator before the operation takes place;

UAS operations in the ‘specific’ category shall require an operational authorisation issued by the competent authority pursuant to Article 12 or an authorisation received in accordance with Article 16, or, under circumstances defined in Article 5(5), a declaration to be made by a UAS operator;

UAS operations in the ‘certified’ category shall require the certification of the UAS pursuant to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/945 and the certification of the operator and, where applicable, the licensing of the remote pilot.

enforcing this Regulation;

issuing, suspending or revoking certificates of UAS operators and licenses of remote pilots operating within the ‘certified’ category of UAS operations;

issuing remote pilots with a proof of completion of an online theoretical knowledge examination according to points UAS.OPEN.020 and UAS.OPEN.040 of the Annex and issuing, amending, suspending, limiting or revoking certificates of competency of remote pilots according to point UAS.OPEN.030 of the Annex;

issuing, amending, suspending, limiting or revoking operational authorisations and LUCs and verifying completeness of declarations, which are required to carry out UAS operations in the ‘specific’ category of UAS operations;

keeping documents, records and reports concerning UAS operational authorisations, declarations, certificates of competency of the remote pilots and LUCs;

making available in a common unique digital format information on UAS geographical zones identified by the Member States and established within the national airspace of its State;

issuing a confirmation of receipt and completeness in accordance with Article 12(5)(b) or a confirmation in accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 13;

developing a risk-based oversight system for:

for operations other than those in the ‘open’ category, establishing audit planning based on the risk profile, compliance level and the safety performance of UAS operators who have submitted a declaration, or hold a certificate issued by the competent authority;

for operations other than those in the ‘open’ category, carrying out inspections with regard to UAS operators who have submitted a declaration or hold a certificate issued by the competent authority inspecting UAS and ensuring that UAS operators and remote pilots comply with this Regulation;

implementing a system to detect and examine incidents of non-compliance by UAS operators operating in the ‘open’ or ‘specific’ categories and reported in accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 19;

providing UAS operators with information and guidance that promotes the safety of UAS operations;

establishing and maintaining registration systems for UAS whose design is subject to certification and for UAS operators whose operation may present a risk to safety, security, privacy, and protection of personal data or the environment.

in subcategory A1 as defined in Part A of the Annex, provided that the unmanned aircraft has a maximum take-off mass of less than 250 g, including its payload;

in subcategory A3 as defined in Part A of the Annex, provided that the unmanned aircraft has a maximum take-off mass of less than 25 kg, including its fuel and payload.

unmanned aircraft with a take-off mass of less than 500 g are operated within the operational requirements set out in points UAS.OPEN.020(1) of Part A of the Annex by a remote pilot having competency level defined by the Member State concerned;

unmanned aircraft with a take-off mass of less than 2 kg is operated by keeping a minimum horizontal distance of 50 meters from people and the remote pilots have a competency level at least equivalent to the one set out in point UAS.OPEN.030(2) of Part A of the Annex;

unmanned aircraft with a take-off mass of less than 25 kg is operated within the operational requirements set out in point UAS.OPEN.040(1) and (2) and the remote pilots have a competency level at least equivalent to the one set out in point UAS.OPEN.020(4)(b) of Part A of the Annex.

for unmanned aircraft referred to in point (5)(d), be conducted in such a way that a remote pilot of the unmanned aircraft does not overfly assemblies of people and reasonably expects that no uninvolved person will be overflown. In the event of unexpected overflight of uninvolved persons, the remote pilot shall reduce as much as possible the time during which the unmanned aircraft overflies those persons;

in the case of an unmanned aircraft referred to in points (5)(a), (5)(b) and (5)(c), be conducted in such a way that the remote pilot of the unmanned aircraft may overfly uninvolved persons, but shall never overfly assemblies of people;

by way of derogation from point (d) of paragraph 1 of Article 4, be conducted, when the follow-me mode is active, up to a distance of 50 metres from the remote pilot;

be performed by a remote pilot who:

be performed with an unmanned aircraft that:

be conducted in such a way that the unmanned aircraft does not overfly uninvolved persons and the UAS operations take place at a safe horizontal distance of at least 30 metres from them; the remote pilot may reduce the horizontal safety distance down to a minimum of 5 metres from an uninvolved person when operating an unmanned aircraft with an active low speed mode function and after evaluation of the situation regarding:

be performed by a remote pilot who is familiar with manufacturer’s instructions provided by the manufacturer of the UAS and holds a certificate of remote pilot competency issued by the competent authority or by an entity designated by the competent authority of a Member State. This certificate shall be obtained after complying with all of the following conditions and in the order indicated:

be performed with an unmanned aircraft which is marked as class C2 and complies with the requirements of that class, as defined in Part 3 of the Annex to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/945, and is operated with active and updated direct remote identification system and geo-awareness function.

be conducted in an area where the remote pilot reasonably expects that no uninvolved person will be endangered within the range where the unmanned aircraft is flown during the entire time of the UAS operation;

be conducted at a safe horizontal distance of at least 150 metres from residential, commercial, industrial or recreational areas;

be performed by a remote pilot who is familiar with manufacturer’s instructions provided by the manufacturer of the UAS and who has completed an online training course and passed an online theoretical knowledge examination as defined in point (4)(b) of point UAS.OPEN.020;

be performed with an unmanned aircraft that:

develop operational procedures adapted to the type of operation and the risk involved;

ensure that all operations effectively use and support the efficient use of radio spectrum in order to avoid harmful interference;

designate a remote pilot for each flight;

ensure that remote pilots and all other personnel performing a task in support of the operations are familiar with manufacturer’s instructions provided by the manufacturer of the UAS, and:

update the information into the geo-awareness system when applicable according to the intended location of operation;

in the case of an operation with an unmanned aircraft of one of the classes defined in Parts 1 to 5 of the Annex of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/945, ensure that the UAS is:

Ensure in the case of an UAS operation in subcategory A2 or A3, that all involved persons present in the area of the operation have been informed of the risks and have explicitly agreed to participate.

Before starting an UAS operation, the remote pilot shall:

During the flight, the remote pilot shall:

During the flight, remote pilots and UAS operators shall not fly close to or inside areas where an emergency response effort is ongoing unless they have permission to do so from the responsible emergency response services.

For the purposes of point (2)(b), remote pilots may be assisted by an unmanned aircraft observer. In such case, clear and effective communication shall be established between the remote pilot and the unmanned aircraft observer.

The remote pilot online theoretical competency, required by points (4)(b) of point UAS.OPEN.020 and point (3) of point UAS.OPEN.040, and the certificate of remote pilot competency, required by point (2) of point UAS.OPEN.030, shall be valid for five years.

The revalidation of the remote pilot online theoretical competency and of the certificate of remote pilot competency is, within its validity period, subject to:

In order to revalidate the remote pilot online theoretical competency or the certificate of remote pilot competency upon its expiration, the remote pilot shall comply with point (2)(a).

In accordance with Article 5, the UAS operator may submit an operational declaration of compliance with a standard scenario as defined in Appendix 1 to this Annex to the competent authority of the Member State of registration as an alternative to points UAS.SPEC.30 and UAS.SPEC.40 in relation to operations:

A declaration of UAS operators shall contain:

Upon receipt of the declaration, the competent authority shall verify that the declaration contains all the elements listed in point (2) and shall provide the UAS operator with a confirmation of receipt and completeness without undue delay.

After receiving the confirmation of receipt and completeness, the UAS operator is entitled to start the operation.

UAS operators shall notify, without any delay, the competent authority of any change to the information contained in the operational declaration that they submitted.

UAS operators holding an LUC with appropriate privileges, in accordance with Part C of this Annex, are not required to submit the declaration.

Before starting an UAS operation in the ‘specific’ category the UAS operator shall obtain an operational authorisation from the national competent authority of the Member State of registration, except:

The UAS operator shall submit an application for an updated operational authorisation if there are any significant changes to the operation or to the mitigation measures listed in the operational authorisation.

The application for an operational authorisation shall be based on the risk assessment referred to in Article 11 and shall include in addition the following information:

When receiving an application in accordance with point UAS.SPEC.030, the competent authority shall issue, without undue delay, an operational authorisation in accordance with Article 12 when it concludes that the operation meets the following conditions:

The competent authority shall specify in the operational authorisation the exact scope of the authorisation in accordance with Article 12.

The UAS operator shall comply with all of the following:

The remote pilot shall:

Before starting an UAS operation, the remote pilot shall comply with all of the following:

During the flight, the remote pilot shall:

during the oversight of the UAS operator, the competent authority has found that the UAS operation is not conducted in accordance with the operational declaration;

the conditions of the UAS operation have changed to the extent that the operational declaration no longer complies with the applicable requirements of this Regulation;

the competent authority is not granted access in accordance with point UAS.SPEC.090.

a description of the UAS operator’s management system, including its organisational structure and safety management system;

the name(s) of the responsible UAS operator’s personnel, including the person responsible for authorising operations with UASs;

a statement that all the documentation submitted to the competent authority has been verified by the applicant and found to comply with the applicable requirements.

comply with the requirements of points UAS.SPEC.050 and UAS.SPEC.060;

comply with the scope and privileges defined in the terms of approval;

establish and maintain a system for exercising operational control over any operation conducted under the terms of its LUC;

carry out an operational risk assessment of the intended operation in accordance with Article 11 unless conducting an operation for which an operational declaration is sufficient according to point UAS.SPEC.020,

keep records of the following items in a manner that ensures protection from damage, alteration and theft for a period at least 3 years for operations conducted using the privileges specified under point UAS.LUC.060:

keep personnel records referred to in point (5)(c) as long as the person works for the organisation and shall be retained until 3 years after the person has left the organisation.

nominate an accountable manager with authority for ensuring that within the organisation all activities are performed in accordance with the applicable standards and that the organisation is continuously in compliance with the requirements of the management system and the procedures identified in the LUC manual referred to in point UAS.LUC.040;

define clear lines of responsibility and accountability throughout the organisation;

establish and maintain a safety policy and related corresponding safety objectives;

appoint key safety personnel to execute the safety policy;

establish and maintain a safety risk management process including the identification of safety hazards associated with the activities of the UAS operator, as well as their evaluation and the management of associated risks, including taking action to mitigate those risks and verify the effectiveness of the action;

promote safety in the organisation through:

document all safety management system key processes for making personnel aware of their responsibilities and of the procedure for amending this documentation; key processes include:

include an independent function to monitor the compliance and adequacy of the fulfilment of the relevant requirements of this Regulation, including a system to provide feedback of findings to the accountable manager to ensure effective implementation of corrective measures as necessary;

include a function to ensure that safety risks inherent to a service or product delivered through subcontractors are assessed and mitigated under the operator’s safety management system.

the UAS operator identification;

the UAS operator’s privileges;

authorised type(s) of operation;

the authorised area, zone or class of airspace for operations, if applicable;

any special limitations or conditions, if applicable;

shall specify the terms and conditions of the privilege granted to the UAS operator in the LUC; and

may, within the terms of approval, grant to an LUC holder the privilege to authorise its own operations without:

any change in the terms of approval of the UAS operator;

any significant change to the elements of the LUC holder’s safety management system as required by point UAS.LUC.030.

the LUC holder’s continuous compliance with the relevant requirements of this Regulation and of the Member State that issued the certificate; and

it not being surrendered or revoked.

be conducted with the unmanned aircraft kept in VLOS at all times;

be conducted in accordance with the operations manual referred to in point (1) of point UAS.STS-01.030;

be conducted over a controlled ground area comprising:

be conducted at a ground speed of less than 5 m/s in the case of untethered unmanned aircraft;

be conducted by a remote pilot who:

be conducted with an unmanned aircraft which is marked as class C5 and complies with the requirements of that class, as defined in Part 16 of the Annex to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/945, and is operated with active and updated direct remote identification system.

having completed an online training course and passed the online theoretical knowledge examination as referred to in point (4)(b) of point UAS.OPEN.020; and

having passed an additional theoretical knowledge examination provided by the competent authority or by an entity designated by the competent authority of a Member State in accordance with Attachment A to this Chapter.

the demonstration of competencies in accordance with point (2);

the completion of a refresher training addressing the theoretical knowledge subjects as defined in point (2) provided by the competent authority or by an entity designated by the competent authority.

develop an operations manual including the elements defined in Appendix 5;

define the operational volume and ground risk buffer for the intended operations, including the controlled ground area covering the projections on the surface of the earth within both the volume and the buffer;

ensure the adequacy of the contingency and emergency procedures through any of the following:

develop an effective emergency response plan (ERP) suitable for the operation that includes at least:

ensure that the level of performance for any externally provided service necessary for the safety of the flight is adequate for the intended operation;

define the allocation of the roles and responsibilities between the operator and the external service provider(s), if applicable;

upload updated information into the geo-awareness, if the function is installed on the UAS, when required by the UAS geographical zone for the intended location of operation;

ensure that, before starting the operation, the controlled ground area is in place, effective and compliant with the minimum distance defined in point UAS.STS-01.020(1)(C)(i)(C) and, when required, coordination with the appropriate authorities has been conducted;

ensure that, before starting the operation, all persons present in the controlled ground area:

ensure that:

before starting an UAS operation, shall verify that the means to terminate the flight of the unmanned aircraft are operational and check if the direct remote identification is active and up-to-date;

during the flight:

The examination referred in point (2)(b) of point UAS.STS-01.020 shall comprise at least 40 multiple-choice questions aimed at assessing the remote pilot’s knowledge of the technical and operational mitigations, distributed appropriately across the following subjects:

If the student remote pilot already holds a certificate of remote pilot competency as referred to in point (2) of point UAS.OPEN.030, the examination shall comprise at least 30 multiple-choice questions distributed appropriately across the subjects in points (1)(a)(i) to (1)(a)(v).

To pass the theoretical knowledge examination, the remote pilot student shall achieve at least 75 % of the overall marks.

in accordance with the operations manual referred to in point (1) of point UAS.STS-02.030;

over a controlled ground area entirely located in a sparsely populated environment including:

in an area where the minimum flight visibility is more than 5 km;

with the unmanned aircraft in sight of the remote pilot during the launch and recovery of the unmanned aircraft, unless the latter is the result of an emergency flight termination;

if no airspace observer is used in the operation, with the unmanned aircraft flying no further than 1 km from the remote pilot, with the unmanned aircraft following a pre-programmed trajectory when the unmanned aircraft is not in VLOS of the remote pilot;

if one or more airspace observers are used in the operation, it shall comply with all of the following conditions:

by a remote pilot who holds:

with an unmanned aircraft which complies with all of the following conditions:

The remote pilot shall obtain the certificate of theoretical knowledge for operations in the standard scenarios after:

This certificate shall be valid for five years. The revalidation, within its validity period is subject to any of the following:

In order to revalidate the certificate upon its expiration, the remote pilot shall comply with point (9).

develop an operations manual including the elements defined in Appendix 5;

define the operational volume and ground risk buffer for the intended operations, including the controlled ground area covering the projections on the surface of the earth of both the volume and the buffer;

ensure the adequacy of the contingency and emergency procedures through any of the following:

develop an effective emergency response plan (ERP) suitable for the operation that includes at least:

ensure that the level of performance for any externally provided service necessary for the safety of the flight is adequate for the intended operation;

define the allocation of the roles and responsibilities between the operator and the external service provider(s), if applicable;

upload updated information into the geo-awareness, if the function is installed on the UAS, when required by the UAS geographical zone for the intended location of the operation;

ensure that, before starting the operation, all appropriate measures to reduce the risk of intrusion of uninvolved persons in the controlled ground area compliant with the minimum distance defined in point UAS.STS-02.020(2) have been taken and, when required, coordination with the appropriate authorities has been conducted;

ensure that, before starting the operation, all persons present in the controlled ground area:

before starting the operation, if airspace observers are used:

ensure that:

before starting an UAS operation:

during flight:

maintain a thorough airspace scan of the airspace surrounding the unmanned aircraft in order to identify any risk of a collision with any manned aircraft;

maintain awareness of the position of the unmanned aircraft through direct airspace observation or through assistance provided by electronic means;

alert the remote pilot when a hazard is detected and assist in avoiding or minimising the potential negative effects.

have the competence to conduct these tasks;

be impartial and shall not participate in assessments if they feel that their objectivity may be affected;

have a sound theoretical knowledge and practical skill training experience, and satisfactory knowledge of the requirements for the practical skill assessment tasks they carry out as well as adequate experience of such processes;

have the ability to administer the declarations, records and reports that demonstrate that the relevant practical skill assessments have been carried out and to draw the conclusions of those practical skill assessments; and

not disclose any information supplied by the operator or remote pilot to any person other than the competent authority upon their request.

include at least:

be appropriately signed and dated by the person responsible for the practical skill assessment once complete; and

be recorded and made available for inspection by the competent authority upon request.

the nominated personnel conducting practical skill training and assessment, including:

the procedures and processes used for practical skill training and assessment, including the training syllabus covering the practical skill corresponding to the STS for which the declaration is made, defined in Attachment A to the relevant Chapter;

a description of the UAS and any other equipment, tools and environment used for the practical skill training and assessment; and

a template for the assessment report.

a statement that the operations manual complies with the relevant requirements of this Regulation and with the declaration, and contains instructions that are to be complied with by the personnel involved in flight operations;

an approval signature by the accountable manager or the UAS operator in the case of a natural person;

an overall description of the UAS operator’s organisation;

a description of the concept of the operation, including at least:

the maintenance instructions required to keep the UAS in a safe condition, covering the UAS manufacturer’s maintenance instructions and requirements, if applicable;

operational procedures, which shall be based on manufacturer’s instructions provided by the UAS manufacturer, and shall include: