Quick Overview of Rules < 500g

Quick Overview of Rules < 500g

If you’ve landed on this page and you want to know what rules apply to you flying your <500g drone then you’re in the right place (for Non CE Marked / Legacy Drones only)..

At <500g (but more than 250g) you are free to operate in any of the Categories of operation but exclusively your drone can operate in the A1 Category so I’ll summarise those key rules for you here (these are valid until 31 December 2022).

The following drones fall into this category:

  • Mavic Air – 430g

  • Spark – 300g

  • Parrot Anafi – 320g

  • Proflight X18 – 340g

First and foremost you must:

  1. Keep the drone in visual line of sight (unless in follow me mode)

  2. Remain a safe distance from people and do not overfly assemblies of people (i.e. gatherings of people who would not be able to move/escape from harm if needed)

  3. No dropping of articles or carrying dangerous goods (but this would be hard with a 250g drone anyway!)

  4. Fly no higher than 120m (400ft) above the ground

In the A1 category at this weight, it is not against the law to overfly people but it is against the law to do so intentionally. If you do then you must reduce the time this happens as much as possible. Also note it remains against the law to fly overhead assemblies of people at anytime and you must not put persons in danger.

Finally, you must do four key things before flight:

  1. You have read and are familiar with the user manual

  2. You are registered as an operator

  3. Complete DMARES Foundation Training/Test and Hold a Flyer ID

  4. Hold an A2 CofC

Remember, this is just a snapshot. Please refer to https://www.caa.co.uk/consumers/unmanned-aircraft-and-drones/ for more details and additional rules that apply. Don’t forget you can use our noflydrones map to see geographical restrictions!