Archive · April 2020
The TC AIM Now Has an RPA Section
What the Aeronautical Information Manual is, why drone pilots should know it, and why it is still the reference nobody reads.
Archived announcement. This was originally posted in April 2020 to mark the arrival of a dedicated Remotely Piloted Aircraft section in the TC AIM. That section is now a long-established part of the manual. The announcement is kept for the record, and the guidance below has been expanded and brought up to date — because the underlying advice matters more now than it did then.
Most drone pilots have never opened the TC AIM. That is a shame, because it answers a great many of the questions people otherwise ask in forums, and it answers them authoritatively.
What Is the TC AIM?
The Transport Canada Aeronautical Information Manual, catalogued as TP 14371, is described by Transport Canada as providing “flight crews with a single source for information on rules and procedures for aircraft operation in Canadian airspace”.
It is not regulation. The Canadian Aviation Regulations tell you what the law requires; the AIM explains how it works in practice, and fills in the detail the regulations leave out. When a rule seems ambiguous, the AIM is usually where the plain-language explanation lives.
It is published twice a year, with editions numbered by year and sequence — 2026-1, 2026-2 and so on. That cadence matters: a copy you downloaded two years ago is two years stale, and drone regulation has moved considerably in that time.
The RPA Section, and the Ones You Also Need
The AIM is divided into sections, each downloadable separately. RPA — Remotely Piloted Aircraft — is the obvious one, and the right starting point.
But treating RPA as the only relevant section is the mistake we see most often. Drone pilots operate in the same airspace as everyone else, and the exam reflects that. Several other sections are directly useful:
RAC (Rules of the Air and Air Traffic Services) covers airspace structure and how you coordinate with air traffic control — essential the moment you consider controlled airspace. MET (Meteorology) explains aviation weather products and how to read them properly, rather than glancing at a consumer forecast app. COM (Communications) covers radio work, which matters if you are pursuing ROC-A. AGA (Aerodromes) explains how aerodromes are structured and marked. MAP (Aeronautical Charts and Publications) teaches you to read the charts you will be expected to interpret.
The remaining sections — GEN, NAT, SAR, LRA and AIR — range from occasionally useful to largely irrelevant for small RPAS work, but they are there.
Have it open when you write your exam. The Transport Canada exams are open book. Pilots who have the AIM to hand, and who know roughly where things live in it, do noticeably better than those meeting it for the first time under time pressure.
How to Actually Use It
Nobody reads the AIM cover to cover, and you should not try. It is a reference, not a course. The productive approach is to bookmark it, download the RPA section, and go to it whenever a specific question arises — airspace you do not recognise, a night operation, an SFOC requirement, a weather product you cannot interpret.
Because a new edition lands twice a year, check you are reading the current one rather than a PDF sitting in your downloads folder. We deliberately have not linked a specific edition here, since those links break every six months; go to the index and take the current version.
Transport Canada Aeronautical Information Manual (TC AIM) — TP 14371 — the official index, where every section including RPA can be downloaded.
Coastal Drone’s Contribution
We are proud to have contributed to the content and editing of the RPA section when it was created. Collaborating with Transport Canada this way helps ensure the industry gets the information it actually needs, and we are grateful for the ongoing opportunity to work closely with them.
Studying for a Transport Canada exam?
Our ground school teaches you where to find things — in the AIM, the CARs and the charts.