7. August 2026

Drone Human Performance regulations don't apply to me - do they?

Maybe they do...

Okay, let's take aside the fact that improving your non-technical skills will improve your performance, efficiency, effectiveness and safety as a drone operator / organisation. Those aspects alone represent pretty strong reasons for developing your Human Factors (HF) / Crew Resource Management (CRM) abilities, but we'll come back to those in a later blog.

For now, let's consider the Regulatory aspects, that mean we are required to complete HF/CRM training in order to be compliant with legislation.

The legal stuff

As I write this, the following regulation, pertaining to the requirement for commercial drone operators to complete HF/CRM training, is already in place in the UK:

• Article 8 Rules and procedures for the competency of remote pilots
  • "Remote pilots operating UAS in the ‘specific’ category .... shall have at least the following competencies:
    • leadership, teamwork and self-management;
    • problem solving and decision-making;
    • situational awareness;
    • workload management;
    • coordination or handover, as applicable."

• SORA applications of SAIL 3 or above
  • AMC1 Article 11 Annex E. Operational Safety Objectives (OSO) 8 and 16:
    • "the Remote Crew must receive Crew Resource Management (CRM) training"

So, if you're a commercial operator, then you are required to have HF training. If you are going to be operating at SAIL 3 or above, then you also need CRM training. These requirements are not optional, and simply saying, "I'm a good leader and have pretty good awareness of what's going on around me", doesn't cut it as far as the regulations are concerned.

You need to have demonstrable evidence of your competency and/or training received.

So, what's the solution?

These requirements don't need to present you with a new headache. Non-technical skills, such as HF and CRM, aren't like many training disciplines. There is training that is a legal requirement, but you come away feeling that it was a 'tick box' exercise and something you'll never use again, Non-technical skills, are different: they have application in absolutely every aspect of your performance.

By training and improving upon these skills, all elements of your operation and output will benefit. Your improved awareness, understanding, decision-making, preparation (this list could go on, but that's probably enough!) will lead to enhanced results throughout all phases of your flight task; that will lead to happier clients and more professional, safer operations; that leads to improved reputation; that leads to more clients and so on...

How do I go about achieving this?

Easy, simply go to our contact page, and drop us a line. We'll arrange for a short, no-obligation call to discuss your specific requirements and how you can make the move to being not only legally compliant, but also towards becoming a more capable, more professional operator.