so i was reading through some stuff about the new EU drone regulations and honestly my head is spinning a bit. i fly mostly in germany and france and ive been trying to figure out if my mini 4 pro still falls under the open category or if i need to re-register or do some kind of additional test. the EASA site is not exactly easy to read lol

from what i can tell the rules changed again at the start of this year but i cant find a clear answer on whether legacy C class markings still apply or if everything resets. does anyone actually fly in europe regularly and understands this stuff? like actually understands it, not just read the same confusing articles i have

yeah the EU regs are genuinely a mess to parse, i went through this same thing last spring. basically if your mini 4 pro doesnt have a physical C class label on the body it's considered a "legacy" drone for now and you can still fly it under the old national rules transitional period which runs until end of i think, maybe early 2026 depending on the country. germany has been stricter about enforcing the registration side of things though so make sure your LuftfahrtBundesamt registration is current. france is a bit more relaxed in practice but technically same rules apply

the EASA site is terrible for this, honestly the best plain-english breakdown ive found is on the drone laws subreddit pinned posts, someone actually did a country by country breakdown a few months ago

i had the same confusion when i started flying in the netherlands last year. ended up just emailing the local aviation authority directly and they were actually pretty helpful, took about a week to get a response but at least it was a straight answer. might be worth trying that for germany, the LBA has an english contact form i think