Drone experts from all over the world were gathering in Amsterdam on 27-28 November for this year’s EASA High Level Conference on Drones.
EAMTC was represented by Martti Jussila, a drone expert from TREDU College in Tampere, nominated by the president and accepted by EASA.
As a result of the Meeting the Drones Amsterdam Declaration was published < Drones Amsterdam Declaration >
Here are some additional observations made by Martti:
- There was lots of discussion about U-space and safety. Industry was hoping that EASA could quickly make necessary regulations for drone operations so they could start to use drones for passenger transportation flights (for example Uber Air) and also to more freely test unmanned drones. At the moment it takes approximately four years from EASA to turn an submission to regulation and this was one big topic to discuss how to make it faster but still to do it without lacking on safety.
- EASA of course aims for safety but they also have to think how to make the regulations for drones safe without making it too heavy and complex. It would be important to make regulations that are easily changed because the drone technology is rapidly moving forward and there will be new innovations which needs to be adapted to existing regulations. And if it is too complex it will also be expensive which would mean that transportation with drones is not for everyone, just like helicopters.
- On the other hand industry has to understand that aviation is strongly regulated and safety comes first.
- Another thought that came to my mind was that is the drone maintenance, especially passenger transportation drones, going to be a part of Part 145/Part 147 organizations or are they inventing new and faster way to do it. There was no discussion about this matter but I think we will know it in the future.
EAMTC will keep a close look on these developments