If you want to fly a drone in the “open” category with a weight of 250 grams or more in Austria, you need a drone driver’s license. For this, a course and a test must be completed online. Around 45,000 drone licenses have been issued to date. The unmanned aerial vehicles (uLFZ) also have to be registered, according to Austro Control this has been the case 30,000 times so far.
To the video about the planned innovations
The Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) is designed to simplify work for drone pilots and Austro Control air traffic controllers. “Drone flights are becoming more and more complicated,” said Hackl at a joint press conference with Frequentis in Vienna. There are already hundreds of drone flights in controlled airspace – i.e. around airports – on “strong days” that must be released.
The new system is not a radar system, but one that is based on voluntary information from the pilots, it was emphasized. There are no figures on how many people fly drones without registration or a driver’s license. Violations are subject to penalties of up to 22,000 euros. Registration is the responsibility of the pilot, said Hackl. There are around ten to 20 drone sightings around airports every year.
Drones regulated by law since 2014
In 2014 Austria got the first drone law, since the end of 2020 the European drone regulations. The previous regulation is practicable for “individual flights” as they occurred in 2014, “with the increasing number of flights we need new systems and procedures,” said Philipp Piber from Austro Control. Until the new system is deployed, flights will continue to be cleared over the phone. “The drone pilot calls Austro Control and passes the data on,” explained Piber. These are recorded and passed on to the air traffic controller responsible for the respective airspace. “The approval is then given by telephone.” With the planned app, it is then “safe and easy to manage a flight”, which means that the “good and safe co-existence of manned and unmanned aircraft” is possible, said Piber. “With the new system, we’re swapping the phone, notepad and ballpoint pen for a tablet,” stated the managing director.
Norway does it
A drone management system from the company Frequentis, which specializes in information and communication solutions for safety-critical application areas, is already in use in Norway, reported CEO Norbert Haslacher. The forecasts go so far that drones will be the main users of regulated airspace in five to ten years and may even overtake helicopters, said Haslacher. “It is all the more important that automation can take place.” The cooperation with Austro Control is the result of a public procurement procedure in which several leading companies from the technology sector have taken part since autumn last year, it was said on Wednesday.
Blue light organizations also involved
Blue light organizations can also be integrated into the new UTM drone traffic management system. At the push of a button, one or all pilots in an airspace can then be communicated with, for example when helicopters from blue-light organizations have to take off. Then “all drone pilots can be asked to land immediately,” explained Austro Control Managing Director Piber. The air traffic controllers have to be trained for this, and Austro Control wants to start a training program in autumn. A test phase is scheduled to start in early 2023.
With the cloud-based UTM solution from Frequentis, future communication between drone pilots and Austro Control will be based on digitization and automation. In the first stage of the joint project, the digital transmission of drone flight plans and the release of drone flights in controlled airspace by air traffic control are on the agenda. As a result, in accordance with the EU regulations currently being implemented, the identification of drones and the warning of closed airspaces will be activated in the system.
5.3 million euros will be invested in the new system over the next five years, said Austro Control Managing Director Valerie Hackl on Wednesday.
Source: Nachrichten
