Operator responsibilities | UK Civil Aviation Authority

Operators must meet a set of Operator responsibilities when carrying out operations under an Operational Authorisation in the Specific Category.

This page gives an overview of your responsibilities.

Full details of your responsibilities and the Acceptable Means of Compliance and Guidance Material are in the regulations library in:
UAS.SPEC.050 Responsibilities of the UAS Operator.

Overview of Operator Responsibilities

Operators must:

meet the specific limits and conditions of their Operational Authorisation
meet the general operational responsibilities for operations in the Specific Category
develop and maintain an operations manual
maintain certain records
maintain an aircraft technical logbook

You must meet the specific limits and conditions set out in your Operational Authorisation as well as the general responsibilities.

We'll set out these limits and conditions in your Operational Authorisation.

You must:

carry out each flight within the limits and conditions of your Operational Authorisation
designate a Remote Pilot for each flight
ensure that Remote Pilots have the required qualifications and experience, and are competent to carry out the operations
ensure that Remote Pilots have a copy of your Operations Manual before they carry out any operations
ensure your operations do not cause harmful radio interference
use UAS that are designed to ensure that a failure will not lead the Unmanned Aircraft to fly outside of the operational volume or cause a fatality
maintain the UAS in a suitable condition for safe operation by, as a minimum, defining maintenance procedures and using sufficiently trained and qualified maintenance personnel
report any accidents, serious incidents, and other occurrences.

You must develop and maintain an Operation Manual.

If you're applying for a PDRA01, we strongly recommend using our Operations Manual template.

You must maintain up-to-date records of the following:

any documents relevant to flight safety
Remote Pilot qualifications and training details,
qualifications and training details for anyone carrying out duties related to your operations or maintenance activities.

You must retain these records for a minimum of 3 years.

You must maintain up-to-date records of the following:

If you're applying for a PDRA01, we strongly recommend using our PDRA01 Technical Logbook template.

Using our template is the easiest way to create a logbook that will comply with the regulations.

You must maintain an aircraft technical logbook for each aircraft you fly under your Operational Authorisation.

You must record the following information for each aircraft in the logbook:

make and model of aircraft
aircraft serial number or registration number (if applicable)
date, time, duration, and take-off and landing location for each flight
Remote Pilot for each flight
total number of flight hours/cycles (take-off and landings)
details of each operation carried out
any significant incident or accident
a completed pre-flight inspection
any site risk assessments and radio frequency surveys carried out
maintenance records and activities, including details of any defects, repairs and changes to the aircraft configuration
the information required to comply with UAS.SPEC.100 Use of certified equipment and certified unmanned aircraft.

Your aircraft technical logbook should be in a digital format that will be easy to provide to us, and for us to use for oversight purposes.

You must keep your aircraft technical logbook up to date.

The operator's aircraft technical logbook is separate to the Remote Pilot flight log.

We recommend using a flight data recording system to keep records of your operations.

There's more information in the guidance material.