The limit being enforced on C0 drones flying in the UK is new.
Possibly, you could argue that we should have seen it coming but I presume it will take a large number of people by surprise, given that there has been no warning from the CAA (or DJI).
The limit being enforced on C0 drones flying in the UK is new.
Possibly, you could argue that we should have seen it coming but I presume it will take a large number of people by surprise, given that there has been no warning from the CAA (or DJI).
I mean…the warning is right here:
Are you telling me you don’t wilfully sit at home and read the 2019/945 regulations in yoru spare time?? Shocking, that ![]()
To an extent, I actually do - see my post above yours where I reference 2019/945 and the specific extract from the legislation:
I know you were joking but my point is that other people probably have much more interesting lives than I do and probably don’t bore themselves with reading dense, badly-written legislation.
So this is going to be my next argument with Dji, The uk is no longer part of the EU so why did we have the freedom off more than 120m literally last week but now suddenly it’s like they are going from the EU laws when they don’t need to.
Because the EASA wrote the rules, which we were ruled by, then Brexit happened so we shelved those rules, and now we took those rules back off the shelf - along with the C0 limitations. Basically.
UK drone law changed on 1 January 2026.
European “C” class markings now have meaning in UK legislation. They didn’t before this date.
For example, C0 and C1 drones are now able to fly in the A1 subcategory (i.e. over people) until 2028.
See this extract from the CAA’s website:
However, presumably the CAA can only allow this if “C” class-marked drones actually meet the specific requirements of their respective class marking. Hence, DJI is now making the Mini 4 Pro strictly adhere to the C0 class requirements and is, therefore, limiting its altitude to 120m.
Ahhhhh yes makes sense, I wonder if Dji will ever give us the option to re register as uk1or uk0? hopefully they do eventually so we have longer than 1 year with the new freedom of the c1 class, Then also wonder if that would allow the limit for current c0 to be raised again once re registered as uk0.
Sadly, the wording in the legislation for UK0 is the same as for C0 so I expect the max altitude will still be fixed at 120m for UK0 drones.
@DanTheDroneMan quoted the first few requirements for the UK0 class marking above:
The wording for UK1 is slightly different to UK0 so I hope the limit will be 500m for UK1 drones, as I believe it is for C1 drones in EASA countries (I think you also said above that your C1-marked Air 3S now had a max altitude of 500m).
This is the wording of the relevant point in the legislation for UK1 drones (the wording of this point for C1 drones is the same):
Yeah it is 500m where it was 1000m so I am hoping that it is going to stay 500m ![]()
Thank you for the help and clarification I understand it so much more now ![]()
Was it really 1000m?? I had never noticed that, and I’ve just checked, whilst the Mini 5 Pro is also locked to 120m max altitude, the Air 3S had 500 m as max altitude until it got GPS lock, at which point it then changed and allowed up to 1000 m max altitude. Which genuinely seems nuts…
Ohh then it might still be that I checked in the house and the slider only went to 500m, maybe last time I seen 1000m was outside
, So does the extra 500m not become available untill it locks gps?
Correct; when I had no sats, it was 500m max; as soon as I got FGPS lock, it increased to 1000m.
But are you saying this 1,000m limit isn’t new? (I hadn’t noticed it before…) It’s on my Air3S (C1) and the Mavic 4 Pro (C2)
Yup,
Mini 5 is limited for me now…
Major spherical suckage…
One is not a happy camper…
So what I was saying is that it is now showing 500m only but not 1000m, I could of sworn it said 1000m inside without gps however I could be getting confused and it was when it had gps, I need to check it when out side and see if the 1000m is still showing for me.
Being the eternal optimise that i am…
I hope DJI and the CAA sort this stoopidness out in line with the published 120m above ground level, not toal point.
Maybe I’m new to the party, having only had the Air 3S since last September, but from new the max altitude I could set was 500m.
Edit: On further investigation the 1000m C1 altitude seems to be an EU thing as well - spoiler the RC is in Spanish
The reason the altitude is 1000m until GNSS locks in is because the software establishes a default position until it knows where the drone is. This is why on 31/12/2025 you could have set 500m max altitude on a DJI Mini 5 Pro whilst stood in Folkestone, but if you’d taken a train to France it would have then locked out at 120m.
Both inside and outside readings of 1000m are showing on my controller for my Air 3S.
If you want it to stay that way I would disconnect your controller from the internet and don’t update anything on it or the drone as it seem it will then change haha
It was connected to the internet and I did try an update, but nowt was available. ![]()
Im honestly not fussed about the 120m limit, I just tested it out of pure curiosity.