Flying the Mavic 4 Pro in the UK: Flyer ID, Operator ID, the C2 Transition and Remote ID in 2026

The UK rewrote its drone framework on 1 January 2026, and the Mavic 4 Pro sits in an awkward spot inside it: a 1 kg aircraft carrying a European class mark in a country that now has its own. The CAA has said exactly how to treat it. The answer has an expiry date.

The summary table

Rule	Mavic 4 Pro in the UK (C2 flown as UK2)
Flyer ID	Required. Free online theory test, valid 5 years, no minimum age.
Operator ID	Required. £12.34 per year, must be 18 or over. Label it on the drone.
Class treatment	EU C2 flown as UK2 until 31 December 2027. From 1 January 2028 it becomes a legacy aircraft flown by weight.
Subcategory	A2 (Near People) with an A2 CofC; A3 (Far from People) without.
A2 distances	No intentional overflight; 30 m from uninvolved people, 5 m in low-speed mode. Built-up areas allowed.
A3 distances	50 m from uninvolved people; 150 m from residential, recreational, commercial and industrial areas.
Height	120 m (400 ft) from the closest point of the earth's surface.
Remote ID	UK1, UK2 and UK3 classes must have it on from 1 January 2026; everything else from 1 January 2028.
Night	Allowed; green flashing light must be on from 1 January 2026.
Insurance	Compulsory for any commercial use; optional for recreation.
Overseas IDs	Not recognised. Visitors need UK IDs before flying.

Two IDs, and they are not the same thing

The UK splits the person who flies from the person responsible for the aircraft. The Flyer ID is the pilot's qualification. You take a free online theory test on the CAA's registration site and the ID is valid for five years. There is no minimum age; under-13s sit the test with a parent or guardian. It is required from 100 g upward.

The Operator ID is the registration of whoever is accountable for the drone. It costs £12.34 a year, you must be 18 or over to hold one, and it is required for drones of 250 g or more or anything over 100 g with a camera. Both come from register-drones.caa.co.uk; the CAA's explanation of the two is at caa.co.uk.

It is the Operator ID, not the Flyer ID, that goes on the aircraft: on the main body, visible from outside or inside a compartment that opens without tools, block capitals taller than 3 mm, attached securely.

Visiting from abroad, none of your home paperwork counts: the CAA does not recognise overseas registrations or qualifications, so you get both IDs from the CAA before you fly. Equally, UK IDs are not valid in the EU, which is why our EU rules post is separate.

The C2 transition: what UK2 means and when it ends

Since 1 January 2026, new drone models placed on the UK market must carry a UK class mark, UK0 to UK6. The Mavic 4 Pro carries the EU C2 mark; the DJI manual's section 7.10 states the aircraft is C2-compliant with a maximum take-off mass of 1085 g, and we found no UK class mark listed by DJI for it.

The CAA's class-marks page resolves this directly: "Until 31 December 2027, you can fly a C class aircraft as if it's the corresponding UK class." C2 corresponds to UK2, which covers aircraft under 4 kg including payload. So until the end of 2027 the Mavic 4 Pro is, for UK purposes, a UK2 drone.

Then the same page: "From 1 January 2028, you'll no longer be able to fly a European C class aircraft as if it's the corresponding UK class. It becomes a legacy aircraft and you'll need to fly in the appropriate Open sub-category according to its weight." For a 1085 g drone the legacy band is under 2 kg: A2 at 50 m with an A2 CofC, or A3. The 5 m low-speed allowance goes with the class mark. Unless DJI obtains a UK2 mark for this aircraft, on which we have no information, your A2 distances get worse on 1 January 2028. Source: caa.co.uk class marks.

A2 CofC: Near People or Far from People

The CAA's own table for a UK2 or C2 aircraft reads: Near People (A2) if you have an A2 Certificate of Competency, Far from People (A3) if you do not.

In A2 with a UK2/C2 aircraft you may not intentionally overfly uninvolved people and must stay 30 m from them horizontally, reducible to 5 m when low-speed mode is active. You may fly in residential, recreational, commercial and industrial areas. On the Mavic 4 Pro in UK trim, the low-speed function is the C position on the mode switch; the manual's wording ties the 2.8 m/s cap to the aircraft "flying in the EU", and we could not confirm from DJI whether UK-registered aircraft behave identically, so check your own speed readout in C before relying on the 5 m figure.

In A3 the Drone Code requires 50 m from uninvolved people and 150 m from residential, recreational, commercial and industrial areas. A March 2026 amendment clarified that a single building at least 50 m from any other is not an "area", but you still keep 50 m from it. That is a rural-only set of rules, which is why the certificate is worth the effort.

The A2 CofC is issued through CAA Recognised Assessment Entities. It needs a Flyer ID as an entry condition, self-directed practical training, and a theory test of at least 30 multiple-choice questions on meteorology, UAS flight performance and ground-risk mitigation. There is no minimum age and it is valid for 5 years. Details and the RAE list are at caa.co.uk.

Height, line of sight, airspace

The ceiling is 120 m (400 ft) from the closest point of the earth's surface, which means it follows the terrain under the aircraft, not the altitude at your take-off point. The Mavic 4 Pro displays height relative to take-off, so on sloping ground the screen and the law disagree. Keep the aircraft within direct visual line of sight. Never fly over crowds.

Flight Restriction Zones around airports and spaceports need permission before you enter them, and byelaws, protected sites and NOTAMs apply on top. The map the CAA points to is NATS Drone Assist at drones.nats.aero; the Drone Code's airspace points are at caa.co.uk.

Remote ID from 1 January 2026

This is the step most pilots miss, because it did not exist for most of the aircraft's life. The CAA's Remote ID page sets two dates. UK1, UK2 and UK3 class aircraft must have Remote ID switched on from 1 January 2026. UK0 with a camera, UK4, legacy and privately built aircraft follow on 1 January 2028, from which point Remote ID applies to all operations unless the CAA has exempted you. The Drone Code's point 32 says it the other way round: from 1 January 2026, add your Remote ID and switch the function on before flying a UK1, UK2 or UK3 class drone.

Put the class-marks page and the Remote ID page together and a C2 flown "as UK2" falls in the 2026 group. To be straight: that is a combination of two CAA pages, not a sentence the CAA has written about C2 aircraft specifically. Flying with it on costs nothing either way, and the CAA recommends it even where not yet mandatory.

How it works: each registered operator gets a UK Remote ID number in the "My registration" area of the CAA service. It begins GBR, followed by a public part, a check character and a three-character private key, and it is case-sensitive. You enter the whole thing into the aircraft; you never write the private key on the outside of the drone. On the Mavic 4 Pro the entry point is DJI Fly, then Safety, then UAS Remote Identification, the same field the manual describes for the EU operator number. We could not confirm from DJI documentation that the firmware accepts the UK format and validates it; if yours rejects the number, that is a question for DJI support with your firmware version to hand. The CAA page is at caa.co.uk.

Night flying

Night flying is permitted in the Open category. From 1 January 2026, a green flashing light on the aircraft must be activated, and the CAA notes that UK1, UK2, UK3, UK5 and UK6 class aircraft have one by design. The Mavic 4 Pro's front LEDs blink green once the motors start, and the manual describes those lights as identifying the aircraft as a UAV. The manual also says the front LEDs turn themselves off while recording if set to Auto in DJI Fly. Set them to on before a night flight. VLOS still applies in the dark; the aircraft's vision system, per the manual, does not work there. Source: caa.co.uk.

Insurance

Third-party insurance is mandatory for any commercial use, meeting the Civil Aviation (Insurance) Regulations 2005 and the assimilated Regulation (EC) 785/2004; for recreation it is optional. Flying for work also changes who registers: the organisation holds the Operator ID with an accountable manager, and each pilot still holds a Flyer ID and, for A2, the CofC. Source: caa.co.uk.

The pre-flight sequence, UK edition

1. Operator ID label on the airframe, block capitals, more than 3 mm.
2. Flyer ID and, if you intend A2, A2 CofC in date and with you.
3. UK Remote ID number entered in DJI Fly and the function on.
4. Drone Assist checked for FRZs, restrictions and NOTAMs.
5. Decide A2 or A3 for this flight and set your distances accordingly: 30 m or 5 m in low-speed mode, or 50 m and 150 m.
6. Night? Front LEDs set to on, not Auto.

That list sits naturally alongside the aircraft checks in our pre-flight checklist, and the RotorCards Mavic 4 Pro guide now includes an international A4 edition with the UK rules on a card next to the EU, Australian and Canadian ones. The transition date is the thing to write on your calendar: the aircraft you fly on 1 January 2028 will be the same, but the rules for it will not be.