New EU drone laws will be implemented on January 1, 2021.  The EU UAS Regulation Package offers welcome codification of drone laws,  but even the “Easy Rules for UAS Regulations” aren’t all that easy to understand.  Don’t worry – the experts at SkyBound Rescuer have developed a free tool to make understanding the new EU categories simple and fast.

The new EU drone laws may present pilots with “a steep learning curve of finding which category applies to any given drone operation,” says a SkyBound Rescuer press release. “Open? Specific? Certified? If the drone pilot falls into the Open Category, are they Subcategory A1, A2, or A3?”

SkyBound Rescuer offer the ‘Drone License Finder’, to simplify the process. “Drone pilots simply complete a series of 3 to 14 ‘yes/no’ questions about their drone and how they intend on flying it, to then receive their category/subcategory results and personalised guidance based on the answers they gave,” says SkyBound Rescuer. “SkyBound Rescuer have made the EU drone laws simple for everyone; reducing reading times from weeks to minutes.”

SkyBound Rescuer explains why the new EU drone rules are necessarily complex:

A “one size fits all” regulation is not a fair system, it causes drone pilots that are always flying low risk operations (such as flying in large, open, and empty fields) to be trained to the same standard and regulated as strictly as drone pilots flying higher risk operations (such as flying in a city). This is clearly not an optimal end state, which is why the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has chosen to pursue a tiered approach to drone regulations through their use of drone pilot categories: Open, Specific, and Certified – with the Open Category being broken down further into Subcategories: A1, A2, and A3. Whilst categorising drone pilots into categories and subcategories does prevent the aforementioned drawbacks of a “one size fits all” regulation, it however brings with it regulation complexity and the challenge of deciphering which category applies specifically to any given drone operation.

“My goal with this project was to simplify everyone’s learning journey, to ensure no one accidentally breaks these new rules. And that’s exactly what we have achieved with our Drone License Finder – which is so exciting!” said Gemma Alcock, Founder and CEO of SkyBound Rescuer.

Drone insurance provider – Flock, drone training provider – HALO Drones, and UAV business and legal consultants – Allan Panthera, all sponsored the project in order to make the Drone License Finder free for everyone.  Pilots, simply complete a series of 3 to 14 ‘yes/no’ questions about your drone and how you intend to fly. (The number of questions depends on the answers you give.) Once completed,  sign up to SkyBound Rescuer’s newsletter to receive your category results and personalised guidance on rules, legal articles, and training requirements – straight to your inbox!

Finally, if you want to get picky about it… “SkyBound Rescuer note that they know it’s not called a “drone license” but when it’s the most Googled search term for drone training – ‘if you can’t beat them, join them!’”