Who makes the rules
The Civil Aviation Authority. Everything hangs off two ideas: how much the aircraft weighs, and how close it gets to people and buildings that have nothing to do with your shoot. Almost all photography and video sits either in what the CAA calls the Open category, which is the lower-risk tier with fixed rules, or in the Specific category, which needs a formal authorisation for anything Open does not allow.
Operator ID and Flyer ID
Two registrations, routinely confused with each other.
- Operator ID belongs to the person or business responsible for the aircraft. It must be displayed on the drone itself, it is renewed annually, and there is a small charge. If a drone carries a camera and is not a toy, it needs one.
- Flyer ID belongs to whoever is actually at the controls and is earned by passing the CAA’s free online theory test. The weight threshold at which it becomes compulsory has been through consultation, so the honest answer in 2026 is that anyone turning up to a paid job should hold one whatever they are flying.
Both take minutes and cost close to nothing, which is precisely why an operator who cannot produce them is telling you something useful.
The Open category: A1, A2 and A3
Open splits into three subcategories, and the difference between them is how near uninvolved people you may legally fly.
- A1 covers the lightest aircraft and allows flight over uninvolved people, though never over crowds or assemblies.
- A2 allows flight closer to uninvolved people, with an A2 Certificate of Competency and a suitably class-marked drone. Minimum separation distances apply and are measured in tens of metres.
- A3 is the far-from-everything option: well away from people, and a substantial distance from residential, commercial, industrial and recreational areas. One hundred and fifty metres is the number to remember.
Two limits sit across all of it. A maximum height of 120 metres above the surface, and the aircraft must stay within the pilot’s unaided line of sight at all times.
Read A3 again and the London problem appears immediately. That description, residential and commercial and industrial and recreational, is a description of London. This is the congested-area issue in one sentence, and it is why a hobbyist with a good camera drone legally cannot work in almost any postcode inside the M25.
Where the real London work sits
Because of that, serious commercial operators here hold a General VLOS Certificate and an Operational Authorisation issued by the CAA, which places them in the Specific category. The authorisation is a document with a reference number and an expiry date, and it does not let anyone fly closer to the public. A standard authorisation still requires 50 metres of horizontal separation from uninvolved people, dropping to 30 metres for take-off and landing, which is further away than an A2 pilot in the Open category has to stay. What it buys is the right to work in a built-up area at all, because it lifts the 150-metre congested-area limit that makes A3 flying impossible across most of London. It carries conditions the operator must work to: written risk assessments, a site survey, cordons, minimum crew.
In practice that authorisation is what makes a rooftop shoot above a residential street in Hackney lawful rather than hopeful. If somebody is quoting you for a built-up London address and never mentions it, they are either not doing the job properly or not doing it legally.
Flight Restriction Zones and the reality of central London
Every protected aerodrome sits inside a Flight Restriction Zone: a circular area around the airport itself, plus corridors extending out from each end of the runway. Flying inside one needs permission from air traffic control at that aerodrome, arranged in advance, and they can and do say no.
London has several of these stacked over each other. Heathrow’s zone reaches deep into the west. London City’s covers a large slice of the east and touches areas people assume are fine. The heliport at Battersea, RAF Northolt and Biggin Hill each add their own. Layered on top are the helicopter route along the Thames and restricted airspace above government and royal sites.
Then there is a category that has nothing to do with aviation at all: landowner rules. The Royal Parks prohibit drone take-off and landing, most borough parks do the same under local byelaws, and the City of London Corporation and the big private estates take the same line. Even where the airspace is workable, you need somewhere lawful to take off from and land on, and that is usually the client’s to arrange.
Put it together and for much of Zone 1, plus a fair amount of Zone 2, the honest answer to “can you fly here” is no. Not expensive. Not difficult. No.
Insurance, and what “commercial” means
If money changes hands, it is commercial, and commercial drone operations need third-party liability insurance written for aviation risk. Insurers reference the retained EU air carrier insurance regulation, and the amount of cover required scales with the weight of the aircraft. A general photography public liability policy usually excludes aircraft outright. Ask for the certificate, and check it names drone or unmanned aircraft operations on its face rather than taking a verbal reassurance.
What to ask to see before you book
| Document | What it proves | How to check it |
|---|---|---|
| Operator ID | The business is registered with the CAA | Ask for the number, then look for it on the aircraft |
| Flyer ID | The pilot passed the CAA theory test | Check the name matches the person turning up |
| A2 CofC or GVC | Formal training for flying near people | The certificate names an issuing body and a date |
| Operational Authorisation | CAA permission to work in built-up areas | Carries a reference number and an expiry date |
| Insurance certificate | Third-party cover for aviation risk | Must name drone or unmanned aircraft operations and a limit |
| Site survey and risk assessment | The location has genuinely been checked | Ask for a copy a few days before the shoot |
| Airport or FRZ permission | Air traffic control has cleared the flight | Written confirmation, not a verbal “it’ll be fine” |
| Landowner consent | A lawful place to take off and land | Usually yours to arrange, so agree who is doing it |
What this means for your shoot
For a suburban house in Zone 3 to 6 with a garden, aerial work is generally straightforward and adds a useful set of images to standard property photography: the plot boundary, the roof, the road it sits on, the distance to the station. For a flat in a mansion block behind Oxford Street it is a non-starter, and I would rather tell you that on the phone than after taking a deposit.
Aerial work starts at £400 through my drone photography and video service, and a meaningful slice of that is planning: checking airspace, requesting permissions, running the site survey. On the day, the flying itself is often twenty minutes.
Before you pay anybody
Two questions separate the professionals from everybody else. “Can you send me your Operational Authorisation reference and your insurance certificate?” and “have you checked the airspace at this exact postcode yet?” A real operator answers both inside a day. If the location turns out to be restricted, do not push it, and be wary of anyone who offers to fly anyway. A telescopic mast at three or four metres, or a wide lens from an upper window across the street, gets you most of the elevation and none of the risk. I have talked more than one client out of an aerial they did not need, and the listing performed perfectly well without it, which I’ve written about in my piece on professional property photography in London.
Rules change, so check caa.co.uk before relying on anything here. Want the airspace at a specific address checked before you commit? Drop the postcode on the contact page, or mention it when you enquire about work anywhere in Central London. You will have an answer inside one working day.