EASA A2 common mistakes
EASA A2 · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating the 30 m horizontal distance as a distance measured from the drone's take-off point or from the pilot, rather than from any uninvolved person, and answering that flying at 25 m altitude over a crowd is acceptable because the drone is 'high up'.
Candidates memorise '30 m' as a number attached to the drone or to the pilot and never attach it to the person on the ground. Because the rule is written as a horizontal separation from uninvolved people, altitude feels like it should buy safety, so the candidate substitutes vertical clearance for horizontal clearance.
What to do instead
Rehearse the rule as a sentence with the object fixed: 'the drone stays at least 30 m horizontally from every uninvolved person'. Then test yourself with scenarios where the drone is directly above a person at 100 m: the horizontal distance is 0 m, so the flight is prohibited regardless of altitude. Draw a plan view, not a side view, when reasoning about this limit.
Believing the 5 m low-speed reduction applies to any drone flown slowly, or applies automatically once the drone is in low-speed mode, and concluding that a 5 m separation is always available.
The 5 m figure is learned alongside the 30 m figure without the condition that attaches to it: it is only available when the aircraft has a low-speed function that is selected and active, and the reduction is to 5 m, not to zero. Candidates also forget the reduction still requires the overflight of uninvolved people to be avoided.
What to do instead
Learn the pair as a conditional: 30 m by default; 5 m only if a low-speed mode is engaged. Then add the separate absolute rule that uninvolved people must not be overflown at all. Practise distinguishing 'distance reduced' from 'overflight permitted' - the low-speed function changes the separation number, it does not authorise flying over people.
Answering that the maximum height is 120 m above sea level, or 120 m above the take-off point, instead of 120 m above the ground beneath the drone at each moment.
Altitude is intuitively referenced to where you are standing, and in flat local flying the two coincide, so the error is never corrected by experience. Candidates also conflate the drone altitude limit with the 120 m figure that appears in other contexts.
What to do instead
Fix the reference explicitly: 120 m above the surface directly below the aircraft, measured continuously. Work a sloping-terrain example - take-off at the bottom of a hill, flying up the slope - where '120 m above take-off' would put the drone far above 120 m AGL. Note also that the limit is a ceiling, not a target.
Assuming that because the A2 certificate allows flight near people, it also allows flight over uninvolved people, or that a C2 class marking grants overflight permission.
The certificate name and the class marking are both associated with 'operating near people', and candidates collapse 'near' into 'over'. The class marking is a product characteristic; the operational rule is separate and still prohibits overflight of uninvolved people.
What to do instead
Separate the three layers in your notes: class marking (what the drone is), certificate (what the remote pilot has demonstrated), operation (what this flight may do). State the overflight prohibition as an unconditional rule and check it separately from the distance rule. Use a two-column table: 'near people allowed' versus 'over people allowed'.
Selecting the C2 class as the drone class required for the A2 certificate without being able to state what actually makes a drone C2, or confusing C2 with C0/C1/C3/C4 characteristics.
Class letters are memorised as a sequence rather than as a set of attributes (mass, impact energy, speed limitation, low-speed mode capability, remote identification). Under exam pressure the candidate matches the letter to the certificate name rather than to the technical criteria.
What to do instead
Build a one-line profile for each class from its defining attributes rather than its letter, and for C2 specifically be able to state the mass limit, the low-speed mode requirement and the remote identification requirement. Then link C2 to A2 as a consequence: the certificate exists because the class permits closer operation, not the other way round.
Stating that operator registration is required only for drones above 250 g, or only for drones with a camera, and therefore that a C2 drone in the A2 context needs no registration.
The 250 g threshold is a genuine and widely repeated rule for the open category generally, so it is over-generalised. Candidates do not notice that registration of the operator is a separate obligation from the mass threshold and applies to the operation being conducted.
What to do instead
Learn registration as an operator-level obligation tied to the operation, not purely to mass, and treat any A2 operation as requiring a registered operator with a valid operator registration number. When a question mentions a C2 drone, assume registration applies and check whether the question is about the operator or the remote pilot - they are different registrations.
Confusing remote identification with a tracking device that the remote pilot must switch on, and answering that remote identification is optional equipment or a pilot action.
The word 'identification' suggests something the pilot does, and the pilot does interact with the drone through the app, so the candidate assigns the function to the pilot. The distinction between a direct remote identification capability built into the drone and an add-on module is also blurred.
What to do instead
State it as a property of the aircraft: the drone broadcasts identification and position information, and for a C2 drone this capability is part of the class specification. Then separate the two mechanisms - direct remote identification built in, versus a retrofit module - and be able to say which applies to a given description. Do not describe it as something the pilot enables for each flight.
Treating the practical self-training declaration as a certificate, a test, or something the instructor or examiner issues, and answering that a flight test or a supervised session is required to complete it.
Every other aviation credential in the candidate's experience is validated by a third party, so the self-training declaration feels like it must be signed off. The word 'declaration' is read as a form to be submitted for approval rather than a self-certification of completed training.
What to do instead
Learn the mechanism precisely: the remote pilot completes the self-practical training and then makes a declaration of completion; there is no examiner and no pass/fail flight test for A2. Be able to state who declares, what is declared, and that the declaration is a prerequisite for operating under A2 privileges rather than a qualification in itself.
Answering that the A1 'open' subcategory prerequisites can be met by a classroom course or an exam at a test centre, and mixing up which subcategory requires an online theoretical examination versus a separate theoretical examination.
The open subcategory is treated as one block, so the differing prerequisites of A1 and A2 are collapsed. Candidates also assume that because A1 is the entry level, its training must be the most formal, when in fact the online training and online theoretical examination structure is specific and lighter than the A2 examination.
What to do instead
Tabulate the subcategories against their prerequisites: for A1, the online training and online theoretical examination; for A2, the additional theoretical examination plus the self-training declaration. Learn them as parallel rows, not as a progression you can infer. Then answer prerequisite questions by naming the subcategory first, before naming the requirement.
Ignoring the subcategory boundary when a scenario is described, and applying A2 privileges to a flight that is actually A1 or A3, for example answering that a flight near a built-up area is fine because the pilot holds A2.
The A2 rules (30 m, 5 m with low-speed mode) are the most rehearsed, so they become the default answer for any scenario. Candidates do not first classify the operation, and the classification determines which rule set applies, including the A3 prohibition on flying near people.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed first step for every scenario question: classify the operation into A1, A2 or A3 before evaluating any distance or altitude. Write the three classifications on one line each, with their defining feature (overflight of uninvolved people for A1, close proximity for A2,远离 people for A3), and practise classifying ten short scenarios without answering the operational question, so the classification habit is separate from the rule recall.