The objective of this Decision is to maintain a high level of safety for the operation of unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) in the ‘open’ and ‘specific’ categories.

Both the amended and the new AMC and GM are expected to maintain safety as regards UAS operations in the ‘open’ and ‘specific’ categories, and increase the harmonisation of UAS operations across the European Union by providing additional clarity regarding the interpretation and implementation of the related regulatory material.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) developed this Decision under rulemaking task (RMT).0730, which is divided into the following two subtasks:

• Subtask 1a providing:
  • new AMC and GM for the establishment of ‘geographical zones’;
  • revised forms for the application and issue of operational authorisations in the ‘specific’ category;
  • new AMC defining the procedure to be applied by UAS operators and the competent authorities for cross-border operations, including the related forms;
  • new AMC and GM for the standard scenarios (STSs);
  • new AMC that provides the syllabus for training modules for remote pilots operating in the ‘specific’ category; and
  • revision of the AMC following the feedback received from national aviation authorities (NAAs) and UAS operators.
• Subtask 1b providing new predefined risk assessment ‘PDRA G-03’.

CS-SIMD Issue 2

The objective of this Decision is to improve existing requirements and guidance material for the definition of the scope of aircraft validation source data (VSD) to support the objective qualification of simulators. The initial Issue was published on 2 December 2014.

This Decision amends CS-SIMD to:

• extend the applicability of CS-SIMD to categories of aircraft other than aeroplanes and helicopters.
• clarify the responsibilities and tasks of the data provider vis-a-vis the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in the context of validating data for flight simulator training devices (FSTDs).
• describe the different steps of the process to provide validation data (VD) for FSTDs.
• clarify the means for substantiating the scope of VSD.
• clarify the concept and differences between VD and VSD.

To this aim, the experience gained since the first implementation of the Certification Specifications and Guidance Material for Simulator Data (CS-SIMD) has been an essential element.

The amendment is expected to facilitate the compliance of applications with the operational suitability data (OSD) requirements for simulator data as well as to make the validation data approval process clearer and more streamlined.