New Article 16 Operational Authorisation issued

New Article 16 Operational Authorisation issued

The CAA has today issued FPV UK with its new Article 16 Operational Authorisation.

This supersedes the previous joint Article 16 Operational Authorisation.

UAS13529 Article 16 Authorisation Issue 2

The new version of the FPV UK handbook (v1.1) to accompany this operational authorisation is also now available:  FPV UK Handbook 2021 v1.1 

In this version of the Article 16 Operational Authorisation we were able to have the CAA slightly improve the FPV separation distances (section 4.3 – from 150m, 50m, 30m to 50m, 30m, 30m) and we were also able to get them to change the definition of a model aircraft very slightly to say ‘The use of any automation, such as automatic flight modes which alter the position of the aircraft, places the operation outside the definition of a model aircraft’ in order to allow the use of modes like panorama, selfie mode, etc.

We also got the CAA to agree that flying with a motion controller, virtual control sticks, gesture control, etc are permissible – you don’t need physical control sticks.  (We included a couple of questions related to these two points in the new FPV UK CofC: Drone Law questions and at first the CAA sector team rejected them as incorrect.  Then, after persuading them to change the definition ever so slightly, those questions were allowed).