When your operation no longer fits the Open Category, you move into the Specific Category and fly under a CAA Operational Authorisation. Here is what that path looks like.
When the Open Category runs out
The Open Category covers lower-risk flying with clear limits: a 120m height cap, visual line of sight, no flying over assemblies of people, and drones up to 25kg. The moment your operation needs to break one of those limits — flying beyond visual line of sight, closer to people than the subcategories allow, or with a heavier aircraft for the task — you move into the Specific Category.
The Specific Category is not a free-for-all. It is a structured, risk-assessed framework where you operate under an Operational Authorisation granted by the CAA.
The routes into the Specific Category
There are a few established ways to gain an authorisation, and the right one depends on how standard or bespoke your operation is.
- PDRA — a Pre-Defined Risk Assessment such as PDRA01, where the CAA has already assessed a common operation type and you simply demonstrate you can meet its conditions
- OSC — an Operating Safety Case, a bespoke risk assessment for operations that fall outside a PDRA, increasingly built around the SORA methodology
- LUC — a Light UAS Operator Certificate, for mature organisations that want to self-authorise certain operations
What you need to apply
- A GVC, which is the underpinning pilot qualification for Specific Category work
- An operations manual describing your procedures, crew, equipment and safety management
- A risk assessment appropriate to the route — proportionate for a PDRA, detailed for an OSC
- Evidence that your aircraft, maintenance and crew competency support the claimed operation
Where SORA fits
SORA — the Specific Operations Risk Assessment — is the methodology the CAA increasingly expects for bespoke cases. It works through the ground and air risk of your operation, assigns a robustness level, and maps the mitigations you must demonstrate. A well-structured SORA is the difference between a smooth authorisation and a drawn-out back-and-forth.
The Specific Category opens up genuinely valuable work, but the paperwork is where applications succeed or stall. Getting the operations manual and risk assessment right first time is the single biggest time-saver, which is exactly where expert support pays for itself.
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