Commercial Drones in Europe – DRONELIFE

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Today at Amsterdam Drone Week, Nathanal Apter of Swiss-based consulting firm UASolutions discussed the prospects for drone operations at scale in Europe.

The Challenges to Commercial Operations at Scale: SAIL Requirements, U-Space

Apter says that regulations are a topic that sometimes get too much attention – and sometimes not enough – when talking about getting drone operations to scale. Europe’s risk-based approach to regulations is party defined by a SAIL (Specific Assurance and Integrity Level) Score.  Roughly speaking, very simple and low-risk operations  – like agricultural ops in sparsely populated areas – have a low SAIL score, and more complex operations, such as drone swarms or flight in densely populated areas, have higher SAIL scores.

The SAIL scores range from I – VI, and come with increasing levels of requirements for compliance.  SAIL I requirements include the basics: maintenance standards, checklists,…