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A drone in flight
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Arnulf Hettrich / imago images
Hobby pilots also need a driver's license: anyone who starts their drone in EU countries such as Germany has had to submit what is known as an EU certificate of competence since the beginning of the year.
This is prescribed by the EU drone regulation.
This driver's license is also required for fun flights in the open air as soon as the drone weighs 250 grams or more - or has a camera on board.
These criteria apply to quite a few popular models such as the DJI Mavic Air 2.
In other words: If you don't just want to control toys, you can't avoid the so-called small drone license.
You can use it to steer very nice chunks with a weight of up to 25 kilograms.
This category includes drones with twelve rotors and a diameter of more than one meter.
In order to be able to acquire such an EU certificate of competence, with which drones of categories A1 and A3 can be flown (see table), the drone pilots, referred to as remote pilots in EU parlance, must be at least 16 years old.
But even with the drone license in their pocket, they have to keep an eye on their aircraft at all times and are not allowed to let it climb higher than 120 meters.
It is also forbidden to use heavy drones to fly closer than 150 meters to people or residential, commercial, industrial and recreational areas.
Rules for drone pilots when flying in the open category
The online exam is a walk in the park
For the EU competence certificate
an online test, which is temporarily free of charge, is sufficient.
The Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA) has already received a lot of criticism for the simple internet driving test.
The accusation: the exam is much too simple, easy to manipulate and offers hardly any learning effect.
The news portal “heise online” described the online test as a “joke”.
Indeed, the exam is a stroll even for laypeople.
We completed the online exam within 30 minutes - although the LBA allows about three hours to cram the rules.
The conclusion: Even if you don't have a clue about model flying, you can easily get your five-year driving license.
There is no fraud control, nor is the ID of the examinee checked.
The test works like this: First of all, training questions about weather influences, accident risks and flight calculations must be answered correctly in order to qualify for the final exam.
But the answers can be changed as often as necessary.
It doesn't take longer than ten minutes to complete this part of the exam.
In the following main exam, 40 questions are asked, around 30 of which must be answered correctly in a maximum of 45 minutes.
The answers are not immediately marked as correct or incorrect.
But with search engine help it quickly becomes clear what the V in VLOS stands for and how long eyes need to get used to the darkness.
The test can be repeated as often as required.
Stricter than the EU demands
The LBA defends itself against allegations that the test is being given away.
Authority spokesman Carsten Konzock informed SPIEGEL on request that budding drone pilots are being checked even more strictly than required by the EU regulation.
For example, there is no provision at all to ask about knowledge during an examination.
“You could have just put a few boards on the Internet that the user freaks through,” says Konzock.
"We didn't want that." The point is that budding drone pilots deal with the matter "with the gentle pressure of an exam at the end".
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In addition, the authorities rate the risk of accidents in the open category as low.
It sounds "quite risky if theoretically a 25-kilogram drone can be flown."
However, these aircraft must also be flown with the EU certificate of competence "virtually in the open", so far away from people, industrial plants and residential areas, says Konzock.
Nothing more should happen than: "The drone falls down and is broken."
It is clear to the authority that someone completely different from the examinee could take the exam on the computer.
The test should still remain unchanged.
"It is expressly not intended to take special measures against fraud," says Konzock.
The risk of manipulation is estimated to be very low, since drone flights are usually a hobby in this category.
It is assumed that »99 percent want to comply with the rules«.
You can't catch the last percent even with such a test.
High penalties for rule violations
The German Model Aviation Association (DMFV) agrees with the LBA.
"You can always argue about distances and weight limits," an association spokesman told SPIEGEL, but the proof of competence is basically correct.
“In order to be able to operate drones safely at all times, their pilots must know the rules of the game in the sky.” A test procedure such as that for vehicles in road traffic is believed to be excessive.
"That would be like having cyclists to get a driver's license."
When asked whether it would not be risky for laypeople to fly up to 150 meters with a 25-kilogram drone, the DMFV spokesman said that such expensive drones shouldn't just be bought.
"In our experience, anyone who buys such an aircraft is very intensively involved with his hobby."
It is definitely worth knowing the rules for drone pilots.
Anyone who violates the regulations must expect high fines: fines of up to 50,000 euros.
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