Somewhere in the growth of a commercial drone operation, the A2 vs Specific category question arrives on its own. You hold the A2 certificate, the work is urban — facades, roofs, worksites, real estate — and the limits start to chafe: keep 30 m from people, never fly over them, never leave line of sight, never climb past 120 m. One tier up sits the Specific category, and it is tempting to read it as the professional's A2 — the same thing, only more of it.
That reading is wrong, and acting on it is expensive. A2 and Specific are not two rungs of one ladder. A2 is a pilot certificate inside the Open category. Specific is a different regulatory machine, and most of its weight lands not on the pilot but on the operator. The real question is not "am I serious enough for Specific?" but "does my operation physically fit inside Open?" If it fits, A2 is the answer. If it does not, no amount of A2 will help.
What A2 actually buys you
Start with an honest inventory, because A2 covers more than its reputation suggests.
With a C2-marked drone — under 4 kg — and the A2 certificate of competency, you may fly closer than 150 m to residential, commercial, industrial and recreational areas. Around uninvolved people the floor is 30 m of horizontal distance, and a C2 drone's low-speed mode (3 m/s) plus the 1:1 rule — never closer than your height — lets you shrink that to an absolute minimum of 5 m. What you may never do, at any distance, is fly directly over uninvolved people.
Five metres from a bystander, next to a building, in the middle of a town: that envelope holds most urban photography and inspection work. Facade surveys, roof checks, construction progress, property shoots — the drone works beside the subject, not over the crowd, and A2 is enough.
The price of entry is modest and pilot-shaped. After the free A1/A3 exam and a self-declared practical training, you sit one in-person CAA exam: 30 questions, 30 minutes, 75% to pass, 15 EUR. The certificate is valid for 5 years across the EU. The full walkthroughs are in A1/A3 or A2 and the A2 certificate in Latvia.
The walls A2 can never move
Some limits in the Open category are not skill-gated. They are category walls, and no exam inside Open unlocks them. Per CAA Latvia's definition of the Specific category, you have left Open the moment your operation involves:
- BVLOS — flying beyond visual line of sight, the basis of long corridor inspection and delivery work
- more than 120 m above ground or water
- a drone with an MTOM above 25 kg — heavy-lift and agricultural platforms
- dropping material or spraying
- operating several drones at once
- flying closer than 150 m to built-up areas with a >250 g drone that has no C0/C1/C2 mark
And one wall that surprises people: assemblies of people are off-limits everywhere in the Open category — A1, A2 and A3 alike. If the job is filming over a packed concert crowd, A2 does not get you one metre closer to legal than A1/A3 does.
If your planned work matches any line on that list, the A2-versus-Specific question is already answered — the only open question is whether the operation is worth the Specific category's process. The overview of the triggers is in when do you need the Specific category.
What stepping up really costs: process, not prestige
The Specific category's cost is not measured mainly in euros. It is measured in the change of who carries the obligations.
In Open, the qualification attaches to you, the pilot. In Specific, the paperwork attaches to the UAS operator — the person or company under whose responsibility the flights happen. In Latvia that operator has two doors:
- Declaration — if the operation matches one of the published standard scenarios: STS-01 (VLOS over a controlled ground area in a populated environment) or STS-02 (BVLOS with airspace observers outside populated areas). No case-by-case approval, but the scenario's conditions are strict and non-negotiable.
- Operating authorisation — for everything else. The application to CAA Latvia includes an operational risk assessment (a PDRA reference or a full SORA), the list of mitigation measures, an operations manual covering the operation, personnel responsibilities, training and the aircraft's technical details, proof of insurance, and the fee: 175 EUR for a SAIL I/II evaluation, 325 EUR for SAIL III and above. The authorisation is valid for up to 2 years.
The pilot's bar rises too. The STS theory certificate is a separate in-person CAA exam — 40 questions, 40 minutes, 75%, 20 EUR for the first attempt (holders of an A2 certificate answer 30 questions instead) — and the theory alone is not enough: each standard scenario also requires an accreditation of completed practical training. How STS, PDRA and SORA relate to each other is unpacked in what is STS, PDRA and SORA.
Note what is absent from this section: any suggestion that Specific makes you look more professional. An operations manual is not a diploma. It is a living document you are expected to operate by, and the authorisation is a permission for a described operation — not a general badge of rank.
One more thing the CAA states plainly: this applies to recreational flyers too. A private individual who wants to fly outside Open limits — above 120 m, BVLOS — needs an operating authorisation like anyone else.
The honest decision framework
Stay with A2 if your work is within sight, below 120 m, on a sub-4 kg C2 drone, and you can hold 30 m from uninvolved people — or 5 m in low-speed mode where the site demands it. That describes the bulk of urban photo, video and inspection work near people. A2 is not the compromise option here; it is the correct one.
Go Specific if the operation itself is impossible in Open: BVLOS corridors, work above 120 m, a platform over 25 kg, spraying, multi-drone operations, or a client brief that genuinely requires flying over people. Then the declaration or authorisation is not bureaucracy — it is the only legal route.
Do not go Specific for prestige. "Clients will take us more seriously" is the worst reason to take on a risk assessment, an operations manual and a renewal cycle for operations you could already fly under A2.
The two are also not mutually exclusive. A working pattern many operators land on: fly the daily urban work under A2, and open a Specific-category file only when a contract actually crosses an Open-category wall.
Weighing a step into the Specific category? Describe your operation to us and we will point you at the right route — and whichever exam comes next, the theory is the same foundation you can build with the dronelingo course.
