Europe Agrees On Regulatory Drone Framework

Hallie Siegel writes: Not a week goes by where some aspect of drone regulation fails to make the news. But for any regulated industry where technology is advancing faster than new rules can be agreed upon, it will undoubtedly cause a few headaches. This week closes with a very positive announcement from European stakeholders on the future of drones. During a two-day conference in Riga, the European aviation community found broad agreement on the main principles to guide a regulatory framework to allow drone operations throughout Europe from 2016 onward.

Item 1 is all I need to read

[Anonymous Coward]

"Drones need to be treated as new types of aircraft with proportionate rules based on the risk of each operation."

Or in other words "fuck you CAA you don't need £3000+ of training to fly a £1000 1kg drone"

Re:

[Danielsen]

A 1 kg helicopter with a rotor spinning at 100m/s is dangerous in the wrong hands. In aviation safety is based on rules, and expensive certificates with rights that can be lost if rules are broken. The operators conducting the commercial aviation business need to document that they have processes (Quality system) to ensure that they have internal checks and balances, to ensure that people is qualified, and equipment is safe. The persons responsible for the processes need to have power to change unsafe be

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Or in other words "fuck you CAA you don't need £3000+ of training to fly a £1000 1kg drone"

Ha. Given how Europe is a mess with fees on GA aircraft (flying in Europe is pricey if you want to do GA thanks to tons of taxes, levies, fees, etc. Europeans are jealous as to how much flying in North America is better because there is so much less burdens).

You may not need UKP3000 in training, but I wouldn't be surprised if you're not hit with a UKP500/year license, a UKP100 take off and land

Re:

[Zedrick]

> Europeans are jealous as to how much flying in North America is better because there is so much less burdens).

I've never heard that before. Oh wait, we're playing the "make up random nonsense"-game? I'll play!

> Europeans are jealous as to how much horseriding in Argentina is better because there is so much less burdens.

> The Japanese are jealous as to how much swimming in Somalia is better because there is so much less burdens.

> Iranians are jealous as to how much stampcollecting

Re:

[JaredOfEuropa]

Is it really? It probably varies a lot between countries. I was surprised though to learn (from Google) that an average PPL certification in the US is around $9000 or so, while I found similar courses here for €10.000 (and that includes 21% VAT). Not that different.

Why do you think they want power?

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Well good. Let's play off governments around the world against each other, as the fear of lagging the other guy strikes sufficient terror into the hearts of elected politicians to overcome their proud accomplishment of the glacially inertial regulatory state, requiring a decade of "donations" to move things along.

It's sad it has to come down to this.

Amphiboly

[sir1real]

"Not a week goes by where some aspect of drone regulation fails to make the news."

Therefore this article fills a much needed gap.