Mavic 3 and Class-C marking (retroactive may be possible)

leebroath · Apr 7, 2022

Hi guys, not sure if anyone watches Henrik on YouTube, but he managed to ask a couple of direct questions relating to the C-Class marking for the Mavic 3, and the answers from the EASA sounded plausible. I’m from the UK, so I hope this trickles down to us, I would like to think so.

zocalo · Apr 7, 2022

There were some rumours that this was being seriously considered several weeks ago, so looks like there may have been some further progress, which is indeed promising. It also seems that there are some compatibility issues between recent phones with Go4, so that's possibly got people looking more seriously at new drones, making it pretty timely if any concerns of the lack of a C-mark can be removed.

As you say, hopefully it'll all trickle down to the CAA and the UK as well.

old man mavic · Apr 7, 2022

personally i dont think that it will be possible to be able to retrospectively ,just stick a label on our drones ,to comply with the new rules ,because of the way that the requirements ,have to be implemented ,i would much rather the powers that be extended the transitional period from what is now the end of December 2022 here in the UK ,so as to allow legacy drones at least another year ,before they became A3 in the open category ,and it should also extend the period till the end of 2023 to give drone makers the opportunity to bring their C classified drones to market

zocalo · Apr 8, 2022

old man mavic said:
personally i dont think that it will be possible to be able to retrospectively ,just stick a label on our drones ,to comply with the new rules ,because of the way that the requirements ,have to be implemented ,i would much rather the powers that be extended the transitional period from what is now the end of December 2022 here in the UK ,so as to allow legacy drones at least another year ,before they became A3 in the open category ,and it should also extend the period till the end of 2023 to give drone makers the opportunity to bring their C classified drones to market

I'd be happy with either approach, but they need to either pick one and say what it is and how it will work or stick to their guns with the current dates, but either way the longer they keep people in the dark the more incompetent they are starting to look. Retrospective marking ought to be possible (you're verifiying a model and maybe revision, not each individual drone) but it would have to be carefully managed and there will still be a potential for fake labels. I think it would definitely have to be a specific exception that only applies to drones produced in the interm period such as the Mavic 3 and so on, and maybe a select number of older models if the vendor wants to put them through the assurance process.

The original requirement for the C-mark was that it be permanently marked on the aircraft by the vendor, e.g not just stuck on. If it's a sticker for any "interim models", then I think you can cover that with some kind of verification system to stop some one just faking a sticker and putting it on any old drone that's visually close enough; an original Mavic for instance. Maybe a QR code that linked back to the vendor sites and provided an additional level of verification and confirmation of the model, registered flyer ID, and other details (GDPR issues aside)? Or you could just accept some faked labels are going to be out there for a while and trust most pilots will do the right thing.

The problem with extending the grace period is that it keeps legacy drones that haven't gone through the C-mark QA process flying closer to structures and people longer, which was likely the whole reason for having the idea of legacy in the first place. That's quite novel - you don't need to refit the latest mandated safety features to classic cars, or have to undergo additional training if you want to drive them in the same manner as a modern car for instance.

The regulatory bodies created this mess through not delivering on time, and now they're going to have to own it and figure out how to clean it up. Get that wrong and the upshot will be a lot more people are going to ignore the rules and fly their legacy drones as normal anyway. Let's face it, as long as you're not stupid, the chances of anything going wrong are pretty low, the chances of getting stopped and checked are vanishingly small, and if you didn't register the drone or put the sticker on the side as well your chances of getting traced will depend on the nature of the incident. I can easily see people accepting that level of risk.

old man mavic · Apr 8, 2022

@zocalo ,could not agree more with your comments ,they have already made changes to part of the implementation of the sale of C rated drones which was going to start in July of this year and moved it to January 2023 ,it will be interesting to see which drone producer is the first one to bring out a drone with the C marking on ,and all that goes with it