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Drone regulations will ground service delivery and job creation

July 1st, 2015, Published in Articles: PositionIT

 

The Commercial Unmanned Aircraft Association of Southern Africa (CUAASA) has issued a statement saying that the proposed RPAS regulations will ground service delivery and job creation. According to the association, drones that could deliver services and create jobs will be effectively grounded if the South Africa Civil Aviation Authority’s (SACAA) proposed bureaucratic interpretations of the regulations are implemented.

According to CUAASA, the SACAA has given notice that, based on its interpretation of the legislation, it intends to subject drone licence applicants to the same rigorous process as commercial freight and passenger airlines at the Air Services Licensing Council. CUAASA President Hennie Kieser states that this is untenable and unreasonable, akin to subjecting a model boat to a warship review. He also states that the SACAA will not recognise, or make a “grandfather clause” allowance for pilots with years of experience who will be lumped together with novice applicants who have never flown before.

CUAASA does not however believe that licensing must be a free for all. Technical standards and testing for RPAS pilots are essential, says Kieser. The immediate problem however is that no such standards exist and, as a consequence, no pilots will be able to apply to fly RPAS when the amendment comes into affect on 1 July 2015.

Accordingly, CUAASA has called on the Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters to instruct the SACAA to:

• Exclude RPAS from Air Services Licensing Council certification.
• Recognise existing, skilled RPAS pilots.
• Publish a framework for the technical standards and testing that RPAS pilots must meet in order to be licensed.

According to Kieser, failure to make these changes will not only ground RPAS for years to come, it will ground the delivery they can undertake and the jobs they will certainly create.

Contact Hennie Kieser, CUAASA, Tel 082 450-5921, admin@cuaasa.org

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