India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has approved 13 flying training organisations (FTOs) to provide pilot training for drones or remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS).
This information was given in a written reply by the Minister of State for Civil Aviation (Independent Charge), Hardeep Singh Puri in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The Draft Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) Section 7, Series D, Part-I and draft Flying Training Circular (FTC)-2 of 2020 have been published on the DGCA website for seeking public comments. Once the CAR and FTC were approved, it would encourage more entities to seek permission for providing drone training.
The basis of granting selected FTOs permission was, inter alia, their familiarisation with aviation safety aspects, regulatory mechanisms, experience in the field of training pilots on manned aircraft, the availability of equipment, trainers, requisite infrastructure, etc.
The remote pilot training requirements are laid down in CAR Section 3, Series X, Part-I. Based on this, the training programme is prepared by each FTO and the training is imparted after receiving DGCA approval.
On Sep 17, DGCA has accorded in-principle approval for the “Certification Scheme for RPAS” submitted by the Quality Council of India (QCI). This will enable third-party testing and certification of drones. QCI would now empanel certification bodies based on the laid down criteria and commence the testing and certification process for drones.