Obligations
The open category: A1, A2, A3
The open category covers low-risk flights: below 120 metres, within visual line of sight, never over a gathering, with an aircraft under 25 kilos. It divides into three subcategories, A1, A2 and A3, according to how far you are from uninvolved people.
The open category covers low-risk flights. Three conditions define it: stay below 120 metres, keep the aircraft within visual line of sight, never fly over a gathering. Maximum take-off mass must stay under 25 kilos.
The rest depends on how far you are from people taking no part in the flight.
A1, flying over people
Reserved for the lightest aircraft: class C0, under 250 grams, and class C1, under 900 grams or transmitting less than 80 joules to a human head.
Flying over an uninvolved person is tolerated, over a gathering never. In C1 the rule is more cautious: you must reasonably expect to fly over nobody, and cut any unplanned overflight as short as you can.
Class C1 calls for online training followed by an examination of 40 questions, passed at 75 %.
A2, flying close to people
Class C2 only, under 4 kilos. Neither privately built aircraft nor those without class marking have access to it.
You fly over nobody, and you keep a horizontal distance of at least 30 metres. It drops to 5 metres if low-speed mode is active, after assessing the weather, the performance of the aircraft and how isolated the area is.
A2 calls for the remote pilot certificate of competency, which assumes you already hold the A1/A3.
A3, flying far from people
Classes C2, C3 and C4, privately built aircraft under 25 kilos, and aircraft without class marking under 25 kilos.
The rule comes down to one figure: at least 150 metres from residential, commercial, industrial or recreational areas. You must operate where you can reasonably judge that nobody will be put at risk.
The classes, in one table
| Class | Maximum take-off mass | Subcategory |
|---|---|---|
| C0 | under 250 g | A1 |
| C1 | under 900 g, or under 80 J | A1 |
| C2 | under 4 kg | A2 and A3 |
| C3 | under 25 kg, under 3 m | A3 |
| C4 | under 25 kg, no automatic control | A3 |
Classes C5 and C6 also exist, but they do not belong to the open category. They serve the standard scenarios of the specific category.
Your drone has no class marking
That is the case for most aircraft sold before 2024, and the least well understood question in the sector.
Two regimes followed one another, and they are often confused. The transitional period, which among other things allowed an aircraft under 2 kilos at 50 metres from people, expired on 31 December 2023. Any page still describing it is wrong.
The second regime has no end date at all. For an aircraft placed on the market before 1 January 2024:
| Maximum take-off mass | Subcategory available |
|---|---|
| under 250 g | A1 |
| 250 g to 25 kg | A3 only |
| 25 kg and above | open category closed |
Note the consequence: A2 is closed to aircraft without class marking. A 900-gram aircraft bought in 2022 stays confined to 150 metres from inhabited areas, however experienced you are.
A point of vocabulary with legal weight: the text speaks of being placed on the market before 1 January 2024, not of the date you bought it.
What takes you out of the open category
One unmet requirement is enough. Flying beyond 120 metres, beyond visual line of sight, over a gathering, dropping an object, spraying, carrying dangerous goods, going past 25 kilos: you move into the specific category, and your insurance regime moves with you.
Insurance is on the examination syllabus
The A1/A3 examination covers nine subjects, among them air safety, airspace restrictions, privacy, and insurance.
The regulator therefore takes the view that a remote pilot should know their insurance obligations as well as they know the flight rules. It is rarely the best-prepared part.
What happens when you leave it
Leaving the open category shifts your policy: see the specific category. In both cases, the insurance obligation does not read the same way.
Recreational use under 900 grams raises a different question, that of cover under your household policy.
The three categories in one diagram
The aircraft classes and the subcategories answer to one another. The insurance regime, on the other hand, is not the same from one category to the next.