On December 2, the German Federal Aviation Authority (LBA- Luftfahrt Bundesamt) announced its Fast Flight program, which aims to speed up the process of obtaining an operational authorisation required in the specific category.
As we have written many times on this site, the operator must meet stringent documentation requirements to obtain an operating permit. The LBA, referring to the new SORA 2.5, allows certain VLOS (i.e. within visual line of sight) drone operations using a solution similar to the standard scenarios (STS), without having to submit the Operations Manual (OM) in advance to obtain the operating permit.
This – like STS – does not mean that it is not necessary to compile the operations manual and make it available to the authority upon request. However, the solution only applies to a specific range of operations. Detailed rules for operators using the Fast Flight licensing option are available here.
It is important that the operator is not exempted from the obligation to compile the operations manual, and that any changes are traceable. The detailed official inspection of the manual does not take place in the authorisation procedure, but during the audit of compliance conducted by the competent authority.