Introduction

The Initial Airwortiness (IAW) processes for the Classes of small UAS intended for the the ‘open’ category of UAS operations and for the standard scenarios in the ‘specific’ category, are besed on the EU ‘new’ and ‘global’ approach for the safefy of industrial procudts, adminstered by industry and culminating in the CE marl and the Declaration of Conformity, based on Parliament Regulation 765/2008 , Commission Delegated Regulation 2019/945  and related European Norms (EN) 4709-00X.

In the specific category requirements escalate from processes identical to the open category, to Design Verification and up to Type Certificate (TC) based on Part 21 and covering both the aircraft and the Control and Monitoring Unit (CMU).

The issuance of the TC leads to the individual Certificate of Airworthiness (CofA) and to requirements for Continuing Airowrthiness on what shall be done (i.e. Part ML.UAS) under responsibility of a specific organisation (i.e. Part CAO.UAS) and under oversight bya  competent authority (i.e. Part AR.UAS).

Similar processes, but with more strigent requirements, in particular for system safety assessment, apply to UAS, RPAS or VTOL Capable Aircraft (VCA) intended to be used in the certified category and possibly carrying humans on board.

The EU aproach for IAW and CAW in the certified category is consistent with Annex 8 to the Chicago Convention, effective since 2021.

A package of five EU Regulations type #3 (i.e. pilot on-board) certified operations was issued in 2024, covering inter alia IAW and CAW.

EASA has already published a number of special conditions , to facilitate the development of the certfication basis, among which the system safety assessment (so called ‘1309’) is the most relevant.

Furthermore, EASA has published several Moens of Compiance (MoC) for design of UAS (e.g. at SAIL III in the specific category).

JARUS has already published four airworthiess codes: CS-LURS, CS-LUAS, CS-UAS and CS-HAPS.

Specific equipment is necessary for UAS (e.g. geofencing, detect and avoid and so on), for which Minimum Operational Performance Specifications are emerging from Standard Development Organisations (SDOs).

The course will provide an overview of the developments summarised above for IAW and CAW of UAS, RPAS and VCA, highlighting the differences with traditional aviation and suggesting how the airworthiness could be demonstrated for UAS of different configurations, MTOM and categories, in the context fo the evolving regulations.

Course Content

15 lectures of about 40 minutes, plus group exercises and guided discussions distributed in 3 consecutive days.

The  lectures comprise:

1. Introduction and course objectives
2. New and global approach for safety of industrial products in EU and related conformity assessment modules
3. Common rules (945) for putting small UAS on the EU market (Classes), Notified Bodies, related authorities and Declaration of Conformity
4. Industry standards (EN 4709-009 and ISO TC20/SC16) for small UAS
5. Initial airworthiness in specific category (SAIL I to III) and Design Verification (SAIL IV)
6. Certification processes for type certified UA (SAIL V/VI and certified category): Annex 8 to Chicago Convention, EU Regulations 2024/1108 and 1110
7. JARUS CS-LURS, CS-LUAS CS-UAS, CS-HAPS and MSO
8. Special Condition Light UAS
9. System safety assessment (AMC RPAS.1309) and EASA SC-VTOL
10. Detect and Avoid (DAA)
11. Command and Control link (C2L) (including new Volume VI of Annex 10)
12. Equipment for small UAS (electronic identification, geofencing, etc.)
13. Continuing airworthiness (CAW) for non-type certified UAS
14. CAW of type certified UAS, responsibilities of operator (Part IV of Annex 6 to Chicago Convention, EC Reg. 2024/111). EC Regulation 2024 1107 (Part ML.UAS and Part CAO.UAS) and related Part AR.UAS (EC Reg. 2024/1109)
15. Design, installation and maintenance of Control and Monitoring Unit (CMU)

Learning Objectives

After completing the course all participants should be able to:

1. Apply the legal requirements, regulatory processes and related industry standards to put on the EU market small UAS in the Classes C0 to C6.
2. Apply the regulatory processes for Design Verification and for IAW approvals. For UAS and VCA without Class label.
3. Initiate development of certification basis considering provisions by ICAO, JARUS, EU, EASA and related industry standards.

Apply the processes for CAW in the open and specific categories as well as for type #3 operations in the certified category.

Who should take this course

Target audience:

• Middle managers, policy advisors, rulemaking officials and inspectors of CAAs;
• Middle managers, designers and aviation professionals desiring to receive detailed information on the international standards and rules applicable to initial and continuing airworthiness of non-military drones;
• Entrepreneurs involved in drone or drone equipment manufacturing and wishing to expand their activity by certyfing or declaring conformity of respective products.

Pre-requisites

Pre-requisites:

• Having attended UAS-INI; and
• University graduation (bachelor); or
• 3 years of experience in airworthiness of traditional aviation; or
• 2 years of experience in conformity assessment of industrial products; or
• 1 year of experience on drones.

Duration

3 Days: 09:00 – 17:00 hrs.