Spain’s State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) has published information related to the procedure for the revalidation and renewal of theoretical remote pilot certificates for unmanned aircraft, complying with Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947.
“All remote pilots who hold the theoretical certificates issued in accordance with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947 on the rules and procedures applicable to the use of unmanned aircraft and who are close to expiry may carry out the procedure for the revalidation of remote pilot certificates,” AESA said.
The procedure is specific to theoretical certificates in the categories “open” (A1/A3 and A2) and “specific” (STS), which are valid for five years from the time of issue. Pilots with certificates close to expiration will be able to perform the revalidation procedure to maintain remote pilot training in force.
“In order to have a common and unique validity date for the certificate of theoretical knowledge of remote pilot, the validity date of the highest level training shall be considered valid, with the A1/A3 being the lowest level certificate, the A2 being the intermediate level certificate, and the STS being the highest level certificate,” AESA continued. “The remote pilot shall check the status of validity of the highest-level remote pilot certificate available and consider that date as valid and common for its lower-level theoretical certificates, taking into account that, in the event of revalidation of the lower-level remote pilot certificates, certificates holding a higher level shall be revoked.”
The procedure for updating these certificates is carried out in two ways:
- Revalidation: Aimed at pilots whose higher level certificates are still in force. In this case, they must pass a free online theoretical test, available three months before the expiration date. The exam varies in the number of questions according to the level and requires a minimum of 75 percent of correct answers to be passed.
- Renewal: Aimed at pilots whose higher-level certificates have already expired, which means re-performing full remote pilot theoretical knowledge training and examinations from scratch. This option involves issuing a new certificate with a different pilot number.
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