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If your drone falls into any of the types set out in the European regulations, you have to register as an operator with AESA. It makes no difference whether you fly for work or as a hobby. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947 applies to all drone operators, model aircraft flyers included. AESA publishes the list of which drones require registration. For the lightest ones it also has a separate document, "Información sobre drones de menos de 250g" (Information on drones under 250g). Read it before taking anything for granted. Registration is free. You do it on AESA's electronic office (sede electrónica), in the UAS operator registration section. With a digital certificate it is automatic and immediate. You register in one country only: the one where you live or where you carry out your business activity. Never in two at once. And one detail that confuses a lot of people: if you are hired as a pilot or fly for someone else, the one who registers is the organisation operating the drone, not you.
Step by step: sign-up, registration, insurance and certificate
The first thing is to take a careful look at your drone. Check whether it carries a class marking label, such as C1, C2 or C3, and compare it with AESA's list. That detail decides almost everything else. Next you go to the electronic office and sign up as a user. This is where a lot of people go wrong. Seeing your user registration as "APROBADA" (approved) does not mean you are already registered as an operator. You still have to go into the UAS application and complete the operator registration. You have 90 days at most. If the deadline passes, the system deletes your user account and you start again from scratch. When registering, you do not need to add your drones to your profile. That is only required for the "specific" category. If you are a foreign national, whether from the EU or elsewhere, AESA asks you to take a few extra steps so you can deal with it online. Check them before you start. Then comes insurance. You need third-party liability insurance covering every flight. You do not need a permanent policy, but no flight can go uncovered. As a pilot, the most common route is to get the A1/A3 certificate. The training and the exam are online and free, and they are provided by AESA. It is 40 questions in 40 minutes, and you pass with 75% correct answers. You get two attempts and 30 working days from when your enrolment comes through. If you run out of attempts, you have to enrol again. One last warning: your pilot certificate number, in the format ESP-RP-0000000XXXXX, is not your operator number. Do not mix them up.
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What to do now and when your certificate expires
So what now? Open AESA's list and see whether your drone is on it. Have your digital certificate to hand. That way your user registration and your operator registration go through on the same day and you can forget about the 90-day deadline. Take out insurance before your first flight, not after. And mark in your calendar when your operator certificate expires. Those issued before 25/06/2024 expire on 25/06/2027. Later ones last 3 years from the date of issue, and each change you make to the registration extends them by another 3 years. With that, you are ready to go flying, whether along the coast at Gijón or in any corner of Asturias.
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Links
More useful links: seguridadaerea.gob.es, seguridadaerea.gob.es, seguridadaerea.gob.es.
