European Model Flying Union - EMFU

The EMFU Board welcomes the membership applications of two Italian associations: Associazione Aeromodellistica Volo In Pendio (AAVIP)(https://www.aavip.it/) and Coordinamento Nazionale Aeromodellisti Libertas (CNAL)(https://www.cnal.org/). We recommend to our members that both associations are admitted as full members to the EMFU at our next General Meeting in Autumn this year. Both associations are included in our work with immediate effect. We're happy to be able to work with and represent model aircraft pilots from yet another country. Together we're stronger.
Libertas Aeromodellismo

Action Plan on Drone and Counter Drone Security The European Commission has presented an EU Action Plan on Drone and Counter Drone Security for a united approach against threats posed by malicious drones.

Fliegen in Frankreich!
Das soll uns auch im neuen Jahr möglich sein. Dazu fordert die Finesse+ auf sich rechtzeitig um die nötige Verlängerung bzw. Neubeantragung der Berechtigungen zu kümmern:

Wer auch im Jahr 2026 in Frankreich ohne Balise und rechtssicher plant fliegen zu gehen sollte diese Hinweise beachten und möglichst bald die Mitgliedschaft bei Finesse+ erneuern/beantragen.
Auszug aus der Mail von Finesse+ vom 01. Januar 2026:

“Wir (=Finesse+) nehmen ab sofort Anmeldungen für die neue Saison entgegen. Ausländische Modellflieger sollten versuchen, ihre Aufenthalte in Frankreich so weit wie möglich im Voraus zu planen, da unsere Verwaltungsabteilung manchmal Schwierigkeiten hat, mit Ihren Anmeldungen Schritt zu halten!”

Es empfiehlt sich also, möglichst bald seinen Beitrag zu bezahlen oder Antrag zu stellen – und etwas Geduld mit einzuplanen.

The cheapest way to support innovation in Europe's aviation sector is through liberal rules for aeromodelling.

The EMFU has submitted its views under the Stakeholder Survey of EASA's Rule Simplification Programme.https://emfu.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025_12-submission-EMFU.pdf

Have you submitted your views yet? The survey is open until the end of 2025!
https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/document-library/rulemaking-process-overview/easa-rule-simplification-programme

In memoriam Michel Rocca, we shall miss him.

EASA is reviewing Regulation 2019/947, the main set of EU rules that also apply to our sport. In January 2024 the EMFU provided proposals to EASA to help ensure that these rules better reflect the interests of our sport. In response to a concrete request from EASA, we have now also submitted a proposal to specify the meaning of "clubs and associations" - the recipients of the authorisations to enable us to fly as we did before the EU rules came into force.

Important to us is that, where possible, these authorisations are provided at the national or regional level (i.e. national or regional associations). This is to reduce the workload and costs for clubs and our members. Our pilots want to spend their free time flying, not coping with complex administrative procedures.

All our proposals are available on our homepage: https://emfu.eu/work-of-emfu

This morning the EMFU was given the opportunity to present challenges and best practices under the EU rules from the view of the aeromodelling community to the EASA Member State authorities at the EASA online technical meeting for unmanned aircraft.

The slides we prepared are available on our website.https://emfu.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025_07_07-Aeromodelling_EMFU_FINAL_WS.pdf

At the meeting EASA again confirmed the large discretion that national authorities have to set liberal rules for our sport (most restrictions come from national authorities, not from the EU). They also indicated that they are working on an amendment of the EU rules that will make clear that we are a "category in ourselves" and should not fall under so-called open or specific category drone rules.

The EMFU's 10th General Meeting Almuñécar, Spain, kindly hosted by the AEAMD, also discussed the EU regulatory challenges facing the model flying community and our priorities for these issues. We were kindly joined by Natale Di Rubbo from EASA.

In our discussion Natale di Rubbo explained that EASA intends to propose amending the EU rules to remove so-called "Article 16 Authorisations" (operation of model aircraft in the framework of clubs and associations - the authorisations under which most of us fly) from the "Specific Category". Until now many countries have (wrongly) applied limits from the specific or open category to our sport. The proposed change will clarify that Member States have full freedom to set their own rules for our operations - the only requirement being registration of the pilots - and that open category or specific category rules play no role for our operations under Article 16. The EMFU has long been asking for this clarification (https://emfu.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024_01_16-EMFU-Amendments-to-947.pdf).

Natale di Rubbo also expressed EASA's support for ensuring a low-impact implementation of the EU rules by EASA member countries. EASA welcomed our proposals for updating its Frequently Asked Questions and will explore options to allow us to do a presentation on implementation issues at one of the next meeting with EASA member countries.

An immediate concern for the EMFU is the EU's work on mandatory occurrence reporting. EU rules require reporting of incidents that lead to serious injury or involve manned aircraft, but the implementation of these rules has been very different so far. The EU is now preparing proposals for categories for incidents involving unmanned aircraft. The EMFU is working with Europe Air Sports to help ensure that any new rules are workable for our sport. Member organisations were warned to keep an eye on national developments in relation to occurrence reporting.

In relation to electronic conspicuity/U-Space we plan to have a separate online meeting with EASA soon.

Lastly, EASA invited the EMFU for a physical meeting at their headquarters in the next few months.

The EMFU's 10th General Meeting Almuñécar, Spain, kindly hosted by the AEAMD, discussed a range of challenges facing the model flying community. One of these is the steady loss of members and how to engage new pilots.
Nobody recruits more young aviators than the model flying community and our work is essential for Europe's future in aviation. We heard from exciting initiatives from some of our members and agreed to host an online seminar on recruiting new members for member organisations in autumn this year. There's much we can learn from eachother.

The EMFU's 10th General Meeting in Almuñécar, Spain, kindly hosted by the AEAMD, worked through a full agenda. Apart from admitting the DMFV and MMAFA as new members (and of course the usual admin stuff :-) we discussed a range of substantive challenges, our priorities for the future and had a constructive discussion with Natale di Rubbo from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). We will post a full summary of the main achievements of the meeting shortly.

The 10th General Assembly of the EMFU unanimously admitted both the Deutscher Modellflieger Verband (DMFV) and the Malta Model Aircraft Flying Association (MMAFA) as full members of the EMFU. We warmly welcome our new colleagues to our association.

The EMFU now presents over 200'000 model aircraft pilots throughout Europe - a new milestone! This gives us even more weight with EU institutions and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). At the same time it provides an even greater network to assist each other with the challeges we face.

Stronger together!