Festival flight with training but no exam
Remote pilot has a C1 drone of 860 g with a camera and wants to film a street festival from 40 m AGL. The pilot completed an A1/A3 online training course yesterday, but the online theoretical exam is scheduled for next week. The operator registration number is already attached to the fuselage. The festival has a dense crowd inside a fenced area; the pilot plans to fly along the edge, 20 m from the crowd, not directly over it. Wind is calm, visibility good, and the drone’s remote identification is broadcasting. A friend says that because the drone is under 900 g, A1/A3 training is enough and no A2 certificate is needed. The pilot asks whether the flight can go ahead today, and if not, what exactly is missing.
1. Can the flight go ahead today under A1? Identify the missing prerequisites and whether an A2 certificate is required.
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No. For open-category A1/A3 operations, the remote pilot must complete the online training and pass the associated online theoretical exam before operating. Completing only the training course is not sufficient. The fact that the exam is scheduled for next week does not create a grace period.
An A2 certificate is not required merely because the drone is a C1 being flown in A1. A2 is the competency route needed for A2 operations, typically with C2 aircraft, and it is not a substitute for the missing A1/A3 exam in this plan. The operator registration number being attached is relevant and the C1 remote identification broadcasting is also relevant, but those do not cure the missing pilot exam. The flight should not go ahead until the exam is passed and the A1 conditions can be met.
2. Assume the exam is passed tomorrow. Assess the planned 20 m distance from the dense crowd and whether the pilot needs an A2 certificate for this C1 flight.
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After the exam, the pilot must still apply the A1 limits. A1 does not use the A2 30 m/5 m distance rule. Instead, the operation must avoid endangering uninvolved people and must not overfly crowds. A dense fenced festival crowd is a crowd, so the plan to fly along the edge must be assessed for drift, emergency landing options and the chance of the aircraft passing over the fence line.
A 20 m offset is not automatically a legal minimum or a guarantee of safety. It may be acceptable only if the pilot can keep the aircraft clear of the crowd and manage a failure without overflight. An A2 certificate is not required solely to fly this C1 in A1, but it also does not authorise overflying a crowd. If the pilot cannot reliably keep the crowd outside the flight path, the flight should be moved farther away or cancelled.