Category 1 operations over people use a small unmanned aircraft that weighs 0.55 pounds or less on takeoff and throughout the flight, including everything on board or otherwise attached, and that has no exposed rotating parts that would lacerate human skin on impact with a person. "Over" a person means directly over any part of that person's body, including someone lying down. Sustained flight over an open-air assembly also has to meet §89.110 or §89.115(a). Category 1 weight does not allow a hover over a crowd with no Remote ID.
The weight is the flying aircraft, for the whole flight
Section 107.110(a) measures Category 1 weight on takeoff and throughout the duration of the Category 1 operation. Everything attached counts: the camera, a strobe, prop guards, and any other item on the aircraft. 0.55 pounds is the figure the rule uses, and the test items treat it as 250 grams. Exposed rotating parts that would lacerate human skin keep the aircraft out of Category 1 even when the weight is legal. Shrouds or guards can address that laceration condition. They still count in the weight. How a few grams of accessories push a 240-gram airframe over the line is worked on the 55-pound and Category 1 weight page. The four categories together are on the operations over people page.
A 1.8-pound quadcopter is already well above 0.55 pounds, so it is not a Category 1 aircraft. If it is marketed for operations over people, has no exposed rotating parts that could lacerate skin, and stays under a defined impact-injury threshold, Category 2 still needs an FAA-accepted manufacturer Declaration of Compliance and a Category 2 label on the aircraft. A notarized weight-and-balance statement signed by the remote pilot is not that document. An airworthiness certificate issued under Part 21 is the Category 4 path, not Category 2. The remote pilot does not need a separate waiver merely because the aircraft meets the Category 2 conditions. Category 2's injury standard and labeling are on the Category 2 page.
"Over" means directly over the body
FAA guidance for §107.39 uses "over" to mean directly over any part of a person's body: the head, an arm, a toe, or a person lying down. Within 50 feet to the side, at any altitude, is not the test. Being below 400 feet above ground level while the person is somewhere in the operating area is not the test. If no part of the body is directly under the aircraft, the aircraft is not over that person for this rule. If the aircraft is directly over a hand or a foot, it is.
Section 107.39 still allows flight over a person who is directly participating in the operation, or who is under a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle that can provide reasonable protection from a falling aircraft, without using Category 1. Everyone else needs a Subpart D category or one of those two shelters. Category 1 is the category for the light, non-lacerating aircraft. It is not a radius around the pilot.
The festival crowd needs Remote ID
A remote pilot plans to fly a 249-gram drone with fully shrouded propellers directly over the crowd at an outdoor music festival. The drone has no Remote ID broadcast capability. That operation is not permitted as Category 1 flight over the assembly. The weight is under 0.55 pounds, and the shrouds address exposed rotating parts. Section 107.110(b) still says no remote pilot may operate in sustained flight over an open-air assembly unless the operation meets §89.110 or §89.115(a). Those sections are the standard Remote ID path and the broadcast-module path in §89.115(a). Visual line of sight does not replace them. A waiver is not the routine path for an operation that simply fails a category condition.
Section 107.110(b) cites §89.115(a), not the FRIA provision in §89.115(b). A crowd hover with no Remote ID is not a Category 1 open-air-assembly operation. Sustained flight over the assembly is the profile §107.110(b) is written for: holding a position over the people, flying back and forth over them, or circling over any part of the gathering. A single brief crossing during a point-to-point flight is a different profile. Circling one end of the crowd to hold a camera angle is sustained flight, and it needs §89.110 or §89.115(a) even though the aircraft is otherwise Category 1. Open-air-assembly conditions for the categories that have them are on the open-air assemblies page.
The traps
The weight trap drops the payload or the guards out of the total, or it treats 1.8 pounds as Category 1 because a brochure says "operations over people." The geometry trap treats "near" as "over." Fifty feet to the side is not over. Directly above a person who is lying down is over. The assembly trap treats 249 grams and shrouded propellers as a complete permission to hover a festival crowd. They are the Category 1 aircraft conditions. The assembly condition is Remote ID under §89.110 or §89.115(a).
Weigh the aircraft as it will fly, from takeoff through the end of the Category 1 operation. Confirm there is no exposed rotating part that would lacerate skin. If the flight will be sustained over an open-air assembly, confirm §89.110 or §89.115(a) before anyone is under the aircraft.
Practice the Category 1 items in the free practice test. Operations over people are taught in the course at pricing.