By Alain Vanalderweireldt & Rudy Pont

With drones becoming more and more affordable and numerous, the number of incidents between drones and manned aviation have been increasing at an alarming rate. The recent events at Amsterdam, London and Paris airports have demonstrated the urgent need to implement stricter and clearer rules to ensure drones and manned aircraft coexist safely.

The technological developments have resulted in a mass introduction of drones (also called RPAS for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, or formerly UAV) on the consumer market. Modern drones are not only used as recreational gadgets, but they provide cheap air-to-ground filming for agriculture, aerial surveying  or TV coverage, among others.

Current technology allows them to be fully GPS programmed, flying their “mission” from takeoff to landing without intervention. Other technologies allow manual remote flying through screen glasses (called FPV glasses) up to several kilometers.

New legislation in Belgium

The applicable legal framework is based on the Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOM) of the RPAS. Systems with a MTOM exceeding 150kg need to comply with EC 2016/2008, similar to commercial airline operations. Below 150kg the rules on RPAS use are governed by the recently (15/04/16) published Royal Decree 2016/14116.

The Royal Decree clarifies the rules and restrictions on drone use. It forbids, among others, drone flying in controlled airspace, over populated areas or in active restricted areas. The text can be found on the DGLV/DGTA website (NL or FR).

Three categories of drones are identified, depending on the type of flights carried out as well as on the risks incurred (see graph below):

• Class 1a and 1b drones (weight between 5 and 150kg), the maximum altitude is 300ft AGL and the drone must remain in sight of the “pilot”. For this category, registration, OPS manual, training and licences for “telepilots” are also mandatory.
• Class 2 drones fall in between the two groups, with softer regulations but still with theoretical training and exam required.
• Class 3 drones, i.e. recreational “toy” drones (<1kg) are only subject to operational restrictions (maximum altitude of 10m, eyesight of pilot, over private property).

Rules vs reality checks

Browsing the web looking for affordable drones, companies like Parrott or DJI propose drones of less than 2 kg for a budget of around 1000€, but with sometimes claimed service ceiling of 1600m or more. The strongest technical limitations being endurance (around 20 minutes) and payload capacity, as weight is the enemy. Concretely, anyone can buy a category 2 RPAS on the internet or in a shop. But how do they know about the environment they will operate or the applicable legislation?

Threats against our airliners?

Technically speaking, the risks related to drones ingestions into engines or impacts on flight controls or windows still have to be evaluated. As for bird strikes, any impact between these fiberglass modern birds and any airliner, light airplanes or helicopter must be avoided at all cost.

What does BeCA want ?

Obviously, the first step is to carry out an extensive public campaign to inform buyers (general public but also commercial) of drones about the dangers, duties, liabilities (insurance) and responsibilities (protection privacy) related to the use of drones. The rights but also the obligations must be known and respected by everyone. The DGLV/DGTA website and decree are an important first step, but more promotion is needed. In this sense, drone associations like BeUAS can help. Furthermore user friendly tools like smartphone apps depicting airports and no fly zones could increase awareness of novice users.

The second step will be strict regulation enforcement against willful offenders. Here, sanctions might be the only barrier to prevent irresponsible and improper drone use. And, of course, the use of drones in terrorist acts should also be anticipated by authorities.

BeCA is continuously monitoring developments on this important safety issue and supports the efforts of the European Cockpit Association (ECA) on this subject. They have developed extensive guidance material , which is available on the ECA website.