Guidance for drone pilots

All relevant regulations and some scattered rules are compiled in a centralized collection. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency follows this fundamental idea with the concept of Easy Access Rules (EAR). The aim is to facilitate legal use of airspace. However, as EU requirements frequently change, the EAR must also be updated from time to time. This is the case for the „Easy Access Rules for Unmanned Aircraft Systems“, which have been available in an updated version since the end of June.

Those who want to operate drones legally must comply with a wide range of regulations at the European level. One must set aside a considerable amount of time to examine these in detail, and this trend is upward. In recent years, the „Easy Access Rules for Unmanned Aircraft Systems“ have become significantly more extensive, increasing from 265 pages in 2020 to a current peak of 468 pages in April 2024. The latest update in June 2026 has resulted in the EAR for drone operations now encompassing 617 pages.

Changes to the Specific Operation Risk Assessment

The main changes and additions are due to the recently presented version 2.5 of the SORA procedure. The changes to the Specific Operation Risk Assessment, developed by the Working Group Safety Risk Management (WG SRM) at the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems (JARUS), concern the ground risk assessment system based on numerical population density. The impacts of adjacent airspaces on the required risk mitigation measures have also been adjusted. This modified methodology for risk assessment of UAS operational scenarios was incorporated by EASA in September of last year, in ED Decision 2025/018/R, into the so-called „Acceptable Means of Compliance“ and the associated „Guidance Material“. It has now been included in the updated „Easy Access Rules for Unmanned Aircraft Systems“.

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The „Easy Access Rules for Unmanned Aircraft Systems“ can be downloaded here: www.bit.ly/EASA_EAR_2026