The Initial Airworthiness (IAW) processes for the Classes of small UAS intended for the ‘open’ category of UAS operations and for the standard scenarios in the ‘specific’ category, are based on the EU ‘new’ and ‘global’ approach for the safety of industrial products, administered by industry and culminating in the CE mark and the Declaration of Conformity, based on Parliament Regulation 765/2008 [1], Commission Delegated Regulation 2019/945 [2] 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 Airworthiness on what shall be done (i.e. Part ML.UAS) under responsibility of a specific organisation (i.e. Part CAO.UAS) and under oversight by a  competent authority (i.e. Part AR.UAS).

Similar processes, but with more stringent 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 approach 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 on 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 [3], to facilitate the development of the certification basis, among which the system safety assessment (so called ‘1309’) is the most relevant.

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 (EU 2019/945) 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. EASA MoC for SAIL III and IV
7. Certification processes for type certified UA (SAIL V/VI and certified category): Annex 8 to Chicago Convention, EU Regulations 2024/1108 and 1110
8. Special Condition Light UAS
9. System safety assessment (AMC RPAS.1309) and EASA SC-VTOL
10. Building the certification basis: JARUS CS-LURS, CS-LUAS CS-UAS, CS-HAPS and MSO
11. Command and Control link (C2L) (including new Volume VI of Annex 10)
12. Equipment for small UAS (electronic identification, geofencing, Flight Termination System)
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)

After completing the course all participants should be able to:

1. Explain regulatory processes for initial airworthiness of drones without type certification
2. Initiate or verify the EU declaration of conformity for small UAS
3. Apply administrative procedures for type certification of non-military drones, based on provisions from  ICAO and EU
4. Identify the certification basis for UAS or RPAS, including the pilot station, based on technical provisions by ICAO, JARUS, EASA and Standard Development Organisations (SDOs)
5. Organise continuing airworthiness of non-military drones, including installation of pilot station

Target audience:

• Middle managers, policy advisors, rulemaking officials and inspectors of CAAs needing knowledge and competency to apply the processes and specifications for initial airworthiness of UAS/RPAS based on provisions by ICAO, JARUS and also ISO and EU/EASA;
• Middle managers, designers and aviation professionals desiring to receive detailed information on the international standards and rules applicable to airworthiness of non-military drones;
• Authority or industry personnel involved in continuing airworthiness of unmanned aircraft and in installation and maintenance of the related pilot station.
• Entrepreneurs involved in drone or drone equipment manufacturing and wishing to expand their activity by certifying or declaring conformity of respective products, including to export them to Europe.

Pre-requisites:

• Having passed 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.
• Highly desirable to have attended courses UAS-OPS and UAS-SORA

Participants are kindly requested to bring a laptop to the course to access course material which will only be provided in electronic format