Whether you call them Unmanned Aircraft Systems (http://bit.ly/33rrDHW) (UAS), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems (RPAS) or simply drones there is a lot of them flying around sometimes causing costly airspace disruptions (http://bit.ly/32yo8yd). This is why the European Cockpit Association (ECA) has developed a detailed paper (http://bit.ly/2p4kdvi) discussing the challenges of ensuring a safe and efficient co-existence of manned and unmanned aircraft.

The safe integration of UAS into the current environment is likely to include constraints to UAS operations and additional risks to manned aviation airspace users. The collective aim should be to minimise these operational constraints and to remove the safety risks as far as possible while maintaining or improving the current levels of safety and security in the skies over Europe.

Given the variety of UAS operations and utilisation, this paper concentrates on the so-called “Very Low-Level Airspace” (VLL) (http://bit.ly/2PVvoRX), which is usually understood to be the volume of air below 500ft above (non-built-up) ground level. This boundary was chosen under the mistaken assumption that manned aviation does not normally operate below 500ft AGL.

Against this background, ECA developed a comprehensive list of 22 recommendations, which are categorised and summarised below.

Airspace dimensions & classification

• ICAO airspace classes and UAS airspace categorisation have to be coherent.
• A UAS Traffic Management System (UTM) shall enable UAS pilots to adequately separate their UAS from manned aviation and ensure proper protection to all airspace users, e.g. by implementing a “buffer zone” between UAS VLL flights and the 500ft height boundary.
• Information on airspace must be human-interpretable & user-friendly so the drone pilot can always evaluate if the drone position is optimal & safe.

Rules of the air

• The application of minimum height requirements and a minimum distance from settlements and open-air assemblies of persons shall be considered.
• The application of standard cruising altitudes could be a measure to safely separate UAS from each other, but not to separate them from manned aviation aircraft.
• The UTM system should provide guidance and set boundaries to UAS operation. To ensure the UAS has the utmost freedom of operation possible, the remote pilot shall be assisted by on-board functionalities.
• Right-of-way rules, compatible with manned aviation, with priorities to certain flights and in relation to the flight phase should be adopted. Manned aviation traffic shall always have priority.
• For operation in the UTM system, a new flight regime comparable to VFR/IFR shall be developed.
• A new flight plan format for UAS and the related means of distribution shall be developed to enable the correct and expeditious collection of flight data and its exchange between all relevant stakeholders and units.
• Flow traffic management rules will have to provide priority to manned aviation users in the strategic and tactical phase of traffic flow management.

Registration

• All UAS should be registered in a common European database, following uniform data requirements and data-protocols.

Identification

• If ADS-B transponders are being used on UAS for identification purposes, it has to be ensured that:
  • they are not the sole source of information,
  • they are compatible with current and future infrastructure requirements
  • they do not negatively affect the integrity of the 1090MHz frequency band nor saturate the system.
• Telecommunication networks used for UTM will have to cope with the anticipated total number of users and provide the required datalink capability.

System-Wide Information Management (SWIM)

• All service providers connected to the UTM system shall be certified and subject to oversight.
• A reporting system, catering for incidents, accidents and other mandatory reporting events in the VLL airspace, shall be in place, based on the principles of a positive safety culture and just culture principles.

Height/Altitude measurement & requirements

• UAS should be equipped with a terrain and obstacle database and sensors that enable a safe operation close to the ground or near infrastructure.
• Given the necessity that UAS operations have to be coordinated with manned aviation, the use of altitude measurement on UAS that is compatible to barometric reference is essential to ensure a common altitude reference between Manned aircraft and UAS.

Weather & operational limits

• UAS should be tested and certified under all environmental/weather conditions which can be encountered in VLL operation.
• Weather data shall be easily human-interpretable to support the pilot with the safe execution of a flight.

Financing

• Financing of a UTM system shall be achieved via public funding or with user fees.

Social acceptability & future applications / systems

• The topic of UAS operation should be presented more effectively to a broader audience so as to give all parts of society the ability to guide the legislative process with input from a well-informed and represented public.
• Advances in technology shall be evaluated to find a healthy balance between what is technically possible and what is beneficial to society.