NEW: Guidance on the implementation of Article 16 of Regulation 2019/947

The European Model Flying Union (EMFU) works to preserve and protect the interests of the model flying community throughout Europe.

The EMFU was formed in 2017, primarily in response to the threat of EU regulations intended for ‘drones’ having a disproportionate and negative impact on the model flying community throughout Europe. We believe that ‘strength in numbers’ gives us a more powerful voice when dealing with future challenges. We provide a ‘forum’ for our members to share information and provide collective input to EU bodies which helps ensure that we present a consistent message to the main regulatory actors in the EU: the European Commission and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). We also help members to work in collaboration, sharing information and ideas which may assist them with their work at National level.

Model flying has established an excellent safety record over a century of operation and had previously always taken place under National regulations.  With the rapid technological development of unmanned aircraft for widespread use by consumers and commercial operators, this introduced new challenges for regulators and resulted in the European Union (EU) being granted competence for their regulation on a Europe wide basis. The EMFU members collectively lobbied (with the support of Europe Air Sports) for model flying to remain within National regulation. As a result of our work, recognition for the special status of model flying was included in the EU Basic Regulation and the EU Regulations for unmanned aircraft and a specific Article to permit model flying to remain within National regulation (under an Article 16 Authorisation) was agreed.

The EMFU is a full member of Europe Air Sports.