PUTRAJAYA, Jan 11 — The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) has issued the Certificate of Approval (COA) to UAV Academy of Asia Sdn Bhd and Air Asia Group Bhd as the Approved Training Organisation for Remote Pilot Training Organisation (ATO-RPTO).
An ATO-RPTO assesses the competency of remote pilots against a specific set of requirements and issues the appropriate certificates.
CAAM chief executive officer Chester Voo said UAV Academy of Asia and Air Asia Group received the RPTO COA under regulation 64 of the Civil Aviation Regulations 2016 which authorises them to conduct examinations or tests and provide courses of training or instruction in accordance with the attached training specification.
“This is part of CAAM’s commitment to further support the UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) or drone industry by providing a strong foundation to allow potential remote pilots to be fully trained with the required skills by going through comprehensive remote pilot training,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Voo said UAV Academy of Asia, which has been in the drone industry for the past three years, and Air Asia Group, a multinational low-cost airline, met the standards, requirements and procedures pertaining to the provisions for RPTO authorised by CAAM.
He said UAV Academy of Asia received approvals for training courses that cover RCoC-B (Basic) which allows all Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) operations conducted under Special UAS Project Approval (SUP Approval) and Module 2 (AGR)[Agricultural UAS Operations] that allows the certificate holders to operate operations for agricultural UAS works.
Air Asia Group received approvals for training courses that cover RCoC-B (Basic), Module 1 EVLOS (Extended Visual Line of Sight operations), Safety Management System (SMS) and Crew Resource Management (CRM), he said.
“With the growing number of ATO-RPTO in Malaysia and more remote pilots being certified, a solid regulatory framework and a standardised curriculum approved by CAAM will provide even greater confidence for organisations and for the industries to expand investments into drone technology,” he said.
Drone activities in Malaysia are currently bounded by the Civil Aviation Regulation 2016 (MCAR 2016) Regulation 140-144 and three Civil Aviation Directives (CADs), he said.
— Bernama
