Autoritatea Aeronautică Civilă Romană

Civil unmanned aircraft – UAS operations

Given that unmanned aircraft currently carry out flight activities (UAS operations) in the airspace together with manned aircraft, European / national regulations cover all types of unmanned aircraft, regardless of their operational mass. The technologies used in the construction, equipment and command / control of unmanned aircraft currently make possible a wide range of operations, and those operations are subject to rules commensurate with the associated risks.

In order to implement approaches based on risk assessment and the principle of proportionality, European legislation has provided a degree of flexibility for Member States with regard to the operation of unmanned aircraft, taking into account the different local characteristics of each Member State, while ensuring an adequate level of safety.

European / national legislation on unmanned aircraft also contributes to the enforcement of appropriate rights guaranteed by Union law, in particular the right to privacy and family life, as set out in Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and the right to the protection of personal data, as set out in Article 8 of that Charter and Article 16 TFEU and governed by Regulation (EU) No. 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Considering the risks that unmanned aircraft may pose to safety, privacy, the protection of personal data, security or the environment, requirements have been established for the registration of certain categories of unmanned aircraft, and registration of unmanned aircraft operators. This requirement has been met by the establishment of national, harmonized and interoperable national registration systems in which information, including the same basic data on unmanned aircraft and unmanned aircraft operators registered in accordance with the European regulations, is stored. Those national registration systems shall comply with applicable Union law and applicable national law on privacy and the processing of personal data, and the information stored in such registration systems should be easily accessible.

According to the provisions of European legislation, model airplanes are considered unmanned aircraft. In this regard and given that aircraft models have so far had a good safety record, especially those operated by members of model aircraft associations or clubs that have developed specific codes of conduct for such activities, European regulations ensure a smooth transition from the different national systems to the new EU regulatory framework, so that aircraft can continue to operate under the same conditions as at present, but also taking into account existing good practices in some Member States.

Considering the above, starting with December 31, 2020, the European / national normative acts that regulate the field of unmanned aircraft are:

In accordance with the provisions of the Government Decision No. 643/2020, Romanian CAA developed and published the following procedures detailing the implementation of Regulations No. (EU) 2019/945 and No. 2019/947, as follows:

Thus, in order to carry out flight activities legally, after December 31, 2020, the following are required:

All UAS operations will be performed in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) No. 2019/947. From the point of view of the authorization of the flight activities, taking into account the normative acts mentioned above, the remote operator / pilot must comply with the following provisions:

1. Art. 14 of Law 21/2020 on the Air Code regarding the establishment of the take-off / landing point in the case of flight activities with unmanned aircraft;
2. Art. 13, para. (3) of Law 21/2020 on the Air Code regarding the altitude regime;
3. Art. 15, para. (2) and (3) of Law 21/2020 on the Air Code regarding the prohibition of flying over densely populated areas / gatherings of people or objectives belonging to structures in the national defense system, public order or national security;
4. the authorization procedure detailed in the Government Decision No. 859/2021 (for “open” and “specific” flight activities).

In airspace areas where flight activities with manned aircraft are prohibited or subject to specific authorizations / approvals, areas already published in AIP Romania, the existing limitations / restrictions are also applicable in the case of flight activities with unmanned aircraft. Full information on these areas is available on the websites: AACR (https://www.caa.ro/ro/pages/drone), AAMN (http://www.aamn.ro in the UAS section), ROMATSA (https://www.romatsa.ro/).

In the case of "open" UAS operations, the operator no longer has a legal obligation to require Romanian CAA to authorize flights below the minimum safety altitude (ZSIS), provided that they take place outside restricted airspace areas. This implicit approval does not apply to "specific" category flight activities.