China publishes new rules on drone operations management and UTM

China has published its “Interim Regulations on the Management of Unmanned Aircraft Flights” which will come into force on January 1, 2024.

The new regulations cover UAS and operator management rules (“Those who engage in the design, production, import, flight and maintenance of medium-sized and large-scale civil unmanned aircraft systems shall apply to the civil aviation authority of the State Council to obtain an airworthiness permit in accordance with the law”) airspace and flight activity management, supervision and management and emergency response, legal responsibilities and supplemental provisions.

Within the airspace and flight activity management section the following rules apply:

Those who use unmanned aircraft to perform emergency tasks such as anti-terrorism, stability maintenance, emergency rescue and disaster relief, and medical rescue shall submit an application for flight activities to the air traffic management agency 30 minutes before the scheduled take-off. The air traffic management agency shall make a decision of approval or disapproval 10 minutes before take-off. For particularly urgent missions, the user unit may submit an application for flight activities at any time.

Units or individuals whose flight activities have been approved to organize unmanned aircraft flight activities shall report the estimated take-off time and preparations to the air traffic management agency one hour before the scheduled take-off, and take off after being confirmed by the air traffic management agency.

Article 31 To organize unmanned aircraft to implement the following flight activities, there is no need to submit an application to the air traffic management agency for flight activities:

(1) Flight activities of miniature, light and small unmanned aircraft in airworthy airspace;

(2) Operation flight activities of conventional agricultural unmanned aerial vehicles;

(3) The flight activities of unmanned aircraft under the jurisdiction of the police, customs, and emergency management departments in the airspace above its station, ground (water surface) training ground, shooting range, etc., which do not exceed a true height of 120 meters; Flights can only take off after being confirmed by the air traffic management agency 1 hour in advance;

(4) Civil unmanned aircraft perform flight missions such as inspection, survey, and calibration within the control zone of civil transport airports; however, they need to be regularly reported to the air traffic management agency for recordation, and confirmed by the air traffic management agency 1 hour before the scheduled take-off Then take off.

Where any of the following circumstances applies to the flight activities specified in the preceding paragraph, an application for flight activities shall be filed in accordance with the provisions of Article 26 of these Regulations:

(1) Relay flights of unmanned aircraft through communication base stations or the Internet;

(2) Carrying dangerous goods or dropping items (except for routine agricultural unmanned aerial vehicle flight activities);

(3) Flying over the crowd at the assembly;

(4) Manipulating an unmanned aircraft on a moving vehicle;

(5) Implementing distributed operations or group flight.

Miniature and light unmanned aerial vehicles flying in airworthy airspace do not need to obtain special approval documents for general aviation missions.”

For more information

http://big5.www.gov.cn/gate/big5/www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/202306/content_6888799.htm

(Image:Shutterstock)

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