Terra Drone Europe is the first Dutch company to receive the Light Unmanned Certificate(LUC). A LUC can be issued by the National Aviation Authority to a professional DroneOperator, after successfully demonstrating it operates under an approved safety management system, according to the specifications of EASA. In addition to being able toevidence the company is able to carry out risk assessments to the required standards(SORA). One of the advantages of operating under a LUC, is the ability to conduct operations covered by standard scenarios, without the need to submit a declaration.
Another advantage is; permission to self-authorise operations covered by a PDRA. The LUC is valid in all EU Member States.
“Receiving the LUC is of great importance to our company. It confirms the safety and quality standards we maintain and allows us to further improve the level of services to ourcustomers. We very much appreciate the constructive feedback from and cooperation withthe CAA-NL, during the process” – Terra Drone Europe’s Managing Director MartijnHoogenstraaten.
The application for the LUC started in January 2021, only a few days after the new EUregulation came into force. The entire process, from preparation to obtaining the license,took over a year and a half of solid work to complete.
Terra Drone Europe’s Quality and HSE Manager, Pieter Franken, said -” The process was long and rigorous. We were the first company to apply. It was also new to the Dutch CAA, and many hurdles were taken together. Some elements of the new EU regulations were stillunderdevelopment when we applied for the LUC”.
About Terra Drone Europe:
Terra Drone Europe is part of the globally operating Terra Drone group and is a leadingprovider of geographic data acquisition, industrial inspections, and high-end aerial imagery,using unmanned aircraft systems.
Experts in their field, Terra Drone Europe has extensive knowledge about and experience inClose Visual (CVI) and thermal inspections, geodesy, topographic surveying, LiDAR, and 3Dvisualizations.
The company was founded over 10 years ago and was the first Dutch company to secure the exemption for flying UAS commercially in 2013, the first Dutch UAS pilot license (RPA-L) in 2015 and the first UAS license (ROC) for The Netherlands in 2015.
