Regulation

EASA, SORA 2.5 and flight beyond line of sight.

Who may fly beyond visual line of sight, on what terms and what they must show. An overview of the EU rules every AKIZU pilot starts from.

Three categories of operation

The category follows the risk of the flight, not the size of the company. Try where your flight would sit.

Category	When	What is needed	Beyond line of sight
Open	Low risk: under 25 kg, up to 120 m, within the pilot's sight, subcategories A1, A2, A3.	Operator registration, pilot training, the subcategory rules.	No
Specific	Higher risk: beyond line of sight, above 120 m, over 25 kg or outside the open-category rules.	A declaration under an STS, an authorisation under a PDRA or SORA, or a LUC certificate.	Yes, with an authorisation or declaration
Certified	High risk, for example carrying people or dangerous goods.	Certification of the drone, an operator certificate and, where needed, a pilot licence.	Yes, within certification

An orientation overview, not legal advice. What binds is the current text of the regulations and the decision of the competent authority. AKIZU is not an authority and issues no authorisations.

The specific category: four routes

Most professional beyond-line-of-sight flights are handled here. The route depends on whether the flight fits a pre-assessed scenario.

STSStandard scenario

The operator submits a declaration and needs no authorisation. STS-01 is within sight with a C5 drone, STS-02 beyond sight with a C6 drone.

PDRAPredefined risk assessment

The authority issues an authorisation based on a pre-prepared risk assessment, for example PDRA-S02 for beyond-sight flights over sparsely populated land.

SORAOwn assessment

The operator assesses the risk of the specific flight with SORA 2.5 and the authority issues an authorisation with conditions.

LUCOperator certificate

A certified light UAS operator can approve some flights itself within the scope of its privileges.

Scenarios and PDRA for beyond-sight flight

	STS-02	PDRA-S02
Drone	class C6, up to 25 kg, up to 3 m	up to 25 kg, up to 3 m
Distance from pilot	up to 1 km, up to 2 km with an airspace observer	up to 1 km, up to 2 km with an observer
Height	up to 120 m	up to 120 m, up to 150 m with a buffer
Ground	controlled ground area in a sparsely populated area	controlled ground area in a sparsely populated area
Document	declaration to the authority	authorisation by the authority

Conditions shortened. The full text is in Regulation (EU) 2020/639 and on the EASA website.

SORA 2.5 in ten steps

JARUS released SORA 2.5 on 13 May 2024. EASA added it to the AMC and GM to Regulation 2019/947 through ED Decision 2025/018/R, published on 29 Sep 2025 and applicable immediately.

Describe the flightConOps: where, when, which drone and which procedures.
Intrinsic ground riskiGRC from population density and the drone's size and speed.
Final ground riskMitigations M1(A), M1(B), M1(C) and M2 lower the class. Optional step.
Initial air riskARC-a to ARC-d from airspace and height.
Strategic mitigationsLimits in time and space lower the ARC. Optional step.
Tactical mitigationsTMPR: how the drone avoids other aircraft and how robustly.
SAIL levelThe final GRC and ARC give SAIL I to VI.
ContainmentHow the drone stays inside the flight area and what about the adjacent area.
OSO objectivesSeventeen operational safety objectives with robustness by SAIL.
Safety portfolioCSP: the body of evidence sent to the authority.

What changed from SORA 2.0

Ground risk is computed from population density in people per km² and the drone's size and speed.
Containment has its own step 8, before the OSOs.
The emergency response plan is no longer a mitigation.
New annexes on cyber safety and quantitative methods.

According to the Spanish authority AESA, applications under SORA 2.0 could be submitted until 17 Nov 2025. Each national authority sets its transition.

Try the SORA 2.5 logic

Pick the drone size, population density, mitigations and the airspace class. The result illustrates the SORA 2.5 tables; it is not an assessment.

An orientation overview, not legal advice. What binds is the current text of the regulations and the decision of the competent authority. AKIZU is not an authority and issues no authorisations.

BVLOS: what a beyond-sight flight must show

The pilot cannot see the drone, only the image and the data. So the link, avoiding other aircraft and what happens on a loss are all assessed.

01C2 link

Performance and reliability of the command and telemetry link, behaviour when it is lost.

02Avoidance

How the operation detects another aircraft and reacts in time, with robustness by ARC.

03Containment

The drone must not leave the flight area, even on a failure.

04People and procedures

Training, procedures, maintenance and records per the OSOs.

Where AKIZU can help

The age of every frame and the image state as a record of the flight.
A log of outages and switches between two networks.
A command tied to the number of the frame the pilot saw.
An evidence pack as input to the safety portfolio.

AKIZU is not

It does not replace an authorisation or a declaration.
It is not an aircraft avoidance system.
It is not a radio C2 backup; that is not in the design yet.

U-space

Regulation (EU) 2021/664 applies from 26 Jan 2023. In U-space airspace a drone receives four mandatory services.

01Network identification

Who flies and where.

02Geo-awareness

Zones and restrictions.

03UAS flight authorisation

Approval of a specific flight.

04Traffic information

Other aircraft nearby.

Slovakia and state flights

Who issues authorisations in Slovakia, and when EASA rules do not apply.

Transport AuthorityCompetent authority

In Slovakia the Transport Authority (Dopravný úrad) issues specific-category authorisations. Osobitná is the official Slovak term for specific.

From 1 May 2026SORA 2.5 only

For specific-category approvals the Slovak Transport Authority now accepts only risk assessments under SORA 2.5.

Art. 2(3)State activities

Flights for the military, customs, police, search and rescue, firefighting or border guard under state responsibility are outside Regulation (EU) 2018/1139.

Art. 2(6)State opt-in

A member state may decide to apply the EU rules to these activities too. EASA keeps the list of decisions.

Timeline of the rules

Sources

An orientation overview, not legal advice. What binds is the current text of the regulations and the decision of the competent authority. AKIZU is not an authority and issues no authorisations.

Explore

Explore every area and the other sections

Twelve solution areas and the sections that belong with them. The case studies are illustrations, not completed deployments.

Solutions

01Public safety 02Infrastructure inspection 03Drone manufacturers 04Defence and resilience 05Logistics and medical transport 06Industrial sites and ports 07Crisis management and civil protection 08Mobile operators 09Corridors and convoys 10Search and rescue 11Public events 12Perimeters and airports

Other sections

ProductsFive parts of one chain TechnologyVERA and the time contract How we measureMethod and measured numbers CompanyWhat holds today and what does not PilotHow a trial runs MaterialsSheets, catalogue and press QuestionsStatus, networks and rules GlossaryImage age, p99, VERA SelectorWhich part you need 3GPP standardsDrones on mobile networks 6GIMT-2030 and timeline

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