The practical side changes more than the legal side. Your drone's sensors may stop helping, the return-to-home logic can behave differently, and you have to judge distance to a light in the dark. Here is what to check before the sun goes down.
When night starts
The drone regulation does not define night, but the EU rules of the air (SERA, Regulation 923/2012) do: night is the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight. Civil twilight ends when the centre of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. Sunset is therefore not the cut-off. After sunset there is a period of civil twilight, and the light requirement starts once it ends. A weather or astronomy app that shows civil twilight times for your location tells you the exact time.
Which drones have the light built in
The class requirements in Regulation 2019/945, as amended in 2020, oblige manufacturers of C1, C2 and C3 drones to fit lights for controllability and at least one green flashing light, so that a person on the ground can tell the drone apart from a manned aircraft at night. C0 and C4 drones have no such requirement. Neither do legacy drones without a class label or privately built drones, which covers most FPV quads.
The rule in UAS.OPEN.060 applies to the flight, not to the product, so a C0 drone or a home-built quad needs a green flashing light at night too. The UK CAA, whose version of the regulation uses the same wording, puts it plainly: if your drone has no built-in green flashing light, you must fit one, and it must stay on for the whole night flight. If it switches off, for example while the camera records, you can no longer comply. The CAA also warns that lights fitted as standard on legacy and class-marked drones follow the manufacturer's design choices and may not always be suitable.
DJI's own manuals are a good example of why you should read the small print. According to the DJI Mini 4 Pro user manual, after the motors start the aircraft status indicators blink green "for conspicuity purpose", to show that the aircraft is a UAV. The same manual adds that in mainland China the left indicator blinks red and the right one green, and that lighting requirements vary by region. The DJI Mini 5 Pro manual describes the same green blinking and tells you not to block the LED lights on the arms.
Fitting an add-on light
The regulation sets no specification for brightness, flash rate, viewing angle or range. The UK CAA's guidance is to attach the light securely where it stays clearly visible from the ground and where it does not affect safe flight. The German drone shop Airclip adds that, since the point is for people on the ground to see the drone, the light should point downwards.
Then weigh the drone again. The light counts towards take-off mass. A C0 drone must have an MTOM of less than 250 g including payload, and ULC's rule for drones without a class label is the same 250 g limit for subcategory A1. The UK CAA gives the obvious example: a 249 g drone with a 5 g light added can no longer use the under-250 g part of the open category. On a drone that sits just under 250 g, a light can cost you subcategory A1.
What changes on a DJI drone in the dark
The vision systems are the first thing to go. The Mini 4 Pro manual says the aircraft can fly at any time of day or night but that the vision systems become unavailable at night, and lists surfaces darker than 10 lux among the conditions where they do not work. The Mini 5 Pro manual has the same night warning. In practice that means no obstacle avoidance and no vision positioning, so the drone relies on GNSS to hold position.
The auxiliary light underneath does not solve that. On the Mini 4 Pro it turns on automatically in low light when the drone is below 5 m to help the downward vision system, and it returns to the default Auto setting every time the drone restarts. It is a landing aid for the downward sensor, not a light for seeing the drone.
Return to home matters most. On the Mini 4 Pro, the Optimal RTH setting plans its own path and altitude when the lighting is good enough for the vision systems. When it is not, the drone runs Preset RTH based on the RTH Altitude setting. At night, assume the drone will climb to the set RTH altitude and fly back to the home point without the obstacle sensing it uses in daylight. Set an RTH altitude above the tallest obstacle on the way home before you take off, and check that the home point was recorded.
For filming, the Mini 4 Pro has a Night video mode with noise reduction and ISO up to 12800, limited to 4K and 1080p at 24, 25 or 30 fps. FocusTrack does not work in Night mode. In the normal video mode the ISO range is 100-6400.
FPV at night
An FPV quad needs the green flashing light like any other drone in the open category. The baseline EU rule also still applies: goggles are not visual line of sight, so an observer has to keep the quad in direct view, and at night the observer sees little more than its lights. Poland's temporary ULC exemption removes the observer requirement within limits on mass, height and distance. The article on flying FPV legally in Poland on this site covers those limits. Read the exemption decision itself before planning a night flight under it.
Before a night flight
- Look up the end of civil twilight for your location. From then on the light is mandatory.
- Check the site in daylight: wires, trees, masts and anything else you will not see later.
- Make sure the green flashing light works and stays on for the whole flight. If you added one, weigh the drone with it.
- On a DJI drone, set the RTH altitude above every obstacle on the way home and wait for the home point to be recorded.
- Report the flight in DroneTower, as for any flight in Poland.
- Fly closer than you would in daylight. DJI's manual asks you to keep the drone within visual line of sight "especially at night".