MANEX: the professional remote pilot's operations manual

The MANEX — French for manuel d'exploitation, operations manual — is the document in which an operator describes how they operate: procedures, aircraft, areas, limits, and what happens when things go wrong.

It is not an administrative formality. It is the piece that shows the operation is under control, and the authority reads it that way.

When it becomes mandatory

In the Open category, it is not required.

It becomes required as soon as you enter the Specific category — under a standard scenario as much as under an operational authorisation examined through SORA. It is often the first document asked for.

What it contains

Content varies with the operation, but the structure recurs:

• the operator — identity, organisation, responsibilities, who decides what;
• the aircraft — each one, its characteristics, its maintenance;
• the people — remote pilots, qualifications, currency;
• the operations — flight types, limits, preparation, normal procedures;
• the areas — what is covered, what is not;
• degraded situations — lost link, failure, intrusion, emergency response.

What makes it painful, and nobody says so in advance

A MANEX is not a document you write once.

It describes a reality that moves: a drone joins the fleet, a remote pilot arrives, an intervention area changes, a procedure evolves. Each time, the manual becomes wrong on one point — and that point is precisely what the authority will look at.

Hence two classic failures: the manual copied from a peer, describing an operation that is not yours; and the manual written properly then never reopened, describing the one you had two years ago.

What Waypoint360 does

In Waypoint360 the MANEX is not a separate file: it feeds on what you already keep there.

• The company, fleet, remote pilot and coverage area sections fill from your data — you do not retype what the platform already knows.
• The document is versioned: draft, amendment, archived. You can see what changed and when, which is exactly what you will be asked during an inspection.
• It exports to PDF and prints, in the form the authority expects.

In short: the manual follows your operation instead of drifting from it.

Going further

• SORA for drones — the risk assessment that accompanies the MANEX in the Specific category.
• Drone regulations in France.
• Features for operators.