EU categories and class marks

Ask ten drone owners what "flying in A2" means and at least a few will describe a drone spec instead of a way of flying. The mix-up is understandable: the EU framework runs two systems side by side, and shops, forums and manufacturers use letters from both interchangeably. This page keeps them apart, because confusing them is how someone ends up flying somewhere they were never allowed to.

Two systems, not one

The first system is operational. Regulation (EU) 2019/947 sorts every drone flight into one of three categories by the risk it carries: Open, for low-risk flying that needs no prior authorisation; Specific, for higher-risk operations that need a risk assessment and an operational authorisation; and Certified, for operations that sit closer to crewed aviation, such as carrying passengers. Almost everyone reading this guide is flying, or planning to fly, in Open.

Open is then split into three subcategories, A1, A2 and A3. These describe how close to people you may fly, not what the aircraft weighs or how it was built.

• Open subcategoriesA1, A2, A3
• A1may fly over uninvolved people, not over assemblies of people
• A230 m from uninvolved people, 5 m in low-speed mode
• A3at least 150 m from residential, commercial, industrial or recreational areas

All three subcategories share a 120 m altitude ceiling above ground level and apply only to unmanned aircraft under 25 kg maximum take-off mass. Heavier aircraft, or operations that do not fit any subcategory's conditions, move into Specific or Certified, which are out of scope here.

The second system: class marks

The second system is a product requirement, not an operational one. Regulation (EU) 2019/945 defines classes for drones placed on the EU market, C0 through C4 for the Open category, each with its own technical file: maximum mass, a maximum speed for some classes, noise limits, and for C1 to C3 a built-in remote identification system that broadcasts the aircraft's position and the operator's registration number. A class mark is a label the manufacturer fixes to the drone and its packaging, similar in spirit to a CE mark, and it is the manufacturer's declaration that a specific unit meets that class's requirements. It is not something a pilot applies for or earns.

This is the part that trips people up: a class mark on its own says nothing about where you are allowed to fly. It only sets which subcategories you are eligible for once you also decide what you intend to do. A C2-marked drone can be flown in A2, close to people, or in A3, further away, at the pilot's choice on the day. It cannot be flown in A1 no matter how carefully it is flown.

Mass is the figure most people memorise, but it is not the only test inside a class. C1, for example, also caps impact energy and requires the remote identification broadcast, so a drone under 900 g does not automatically qualify for C1 if it fails those other tests. Where mass alone cannot settle the question, the manufacturer's declaration of conformity is the document that decides it, not a set of kitchen scales.

How a mark and an intention combine

Neither system does anything on its own. A C2 mark does not put you in A2: you still have to fly under A2's conditions, including the horizontal distance from people and the additional remote pilot competency certificate that A2 requires, to actually be operating in that subcategory. Equally, wanting to fly close to people does not let you do it just because the aircraft is light, if what you are holding is C3 or C4 marked, because those marks only ever apply to A3. The class mark sets the ceiling of what is legally possible for that airframe. Your flight plan, on the day, decides which subcategory inside that ceiling you are actually using.

This is also why the EU category calculator on this site asks two separate questions rather than one: what does the drone weigh or what is it marked as, and what do you actually want to do with it. The first answer narrows the field of subcategories that are even possible. The second picks the one you are using for that flight.

Legacy drones: bought before the marking regime applied

Most drones already in people's hands were bought before class marks existed at all, and that includes almost every FPV build, since a self-built quad has no manufacturer to issue one. The Regulation (EU) 2019/945 marking system only became a requirement for drones newly placed on the market from 1 January 2024. For an aircraft bought before that date and never marked, the rules do not require you to retrofit a label or ground it. Instead there is a transitional route based on weight alone.

• No class mark, under 250 gflies in A1
• No class mark, 250 g up to 25 kgflies in A3 only
• No class mark, any weightnever eligible for A2

The asymmetry matters most for FPV builders. A self-built rig stays in the legacy bracket by default and is very unlikely to ever carry a manufacturer's class mark, unless a separate framework for privately built aircraft changes that. A typical 4" quad at 250 to 400 g all-up weight sits in A3 territory: you are not flying it over people, full stop, regardless of how light it is next to a marked C1 product. Weigh the aircraft, including the battery, before you rely on a figure from memory, because "without a class identification label the maximum take-off mass is not available" the way it would be printed on a marked drone's box.

Rules differ once you leave the EU-wide framework

Everything above, the three operational categories, the A1 to A3 split and the C0 to C4 classes, comes from EU regulations that apply the same way in every member state. What is not EU-wide is operator registration, the minimum age for a remote pilot, and where you are actually permitted to take off, all of which member states set nationally within the EU frame.

None of this replaces reading the regulations yourself before a flight that matters. This page explains the mechanism; the regulation section and the sources linked throughout carry the actual legal text.