Survey on Impact of new RPAS Safety Assurance Design Rules in Canada

In January, 2019, Transport Canada announced new rules for RPAS Operations starting June 1st. They cover new Pilot Certificates and Exams, new Flight Rules as well as the introduction of a new Safety Assurance Standard and Advisory Circular AC922 for RPAS, known as “SAFE”, covering RPAS Designs to be used in higher risk situations.

TL;DR Here is the link to the survey.

At USC-STC, we’ve put together a quick survey to gather input from the Canadian RPAS industry to understand better the impact of the new RPAS Aircraft rules so we can provide feedback.
In a nutshell, Safety Assurance or “SAFE” RPAS systems can be declared to be able fly in, under the new rules, in three environments:

  • a) in Controlled Airspace
  • b) Near People and,
  • c) Over People

if the manufacturer of an RPAS system tests their RPAS and declares to Transport Canada that they can operate in any or all of those categories.
All other RPAS systems that are not declared by their manufacturers can ONLY operate in Class G airspace and 30m from people, as well as more than 3 nm from an airport and 1 nm from a helipad.


All information will be anonymous and used in aggregate only. We will not sell or use this information in any way other than to inform USC-STC research and provide feedback to the Regulator.

You can access the survey from here as well.

Thanks very much for filling out the survey…


Regulatory Committee, USC-STC