Category 2 is the declaration path for flight over people when the aircraft is built to an 11 foot-pound injury standard. Section 107.120(a) says the aircraft must be designed, produced, or modified so it will not cause injury equivalent to or greater than the severity of a transfer of 11 foot-pounds of kinetic energy upon impact from a rigid object, it has no exposed rotating parts that would lacerate human skin, and it contains no safety defects. The remote pilot then flies only an aircraft that is eligible, listed, and labeled under §107.115.
The rule
Eligibility and the field operation are different jobs. Section 107.155 says the means of compliance for §107.120(a) is test, analysis, or inspection. Section 107.160 requires an applicant to submit a declaration of compliance for FAA acceptance. The declaration identifies the applicant, the make and model, the serial numbers, whether it is an initial or amended declaration, and the accepted means of compliance. The applicant declares that the aircraft satisfies §107.120(a), that it has no safety defects, and that the product-support duty in §107.120(b)(3) is met. The FAA notifies the applicant when it accepts the declaration. The remote pilot in command does not submit that package as a preflight item, and a LAANC authorization is not a declaration.
Once the declaration is accepted, §107.115(a) still has three conditions for the flight. The aircraft must be eligible under §107.120(a). It must be listed on an FAA-accepted declaration of compliance as eligible for Category 2. It must be labeled under §107.120(b)(1). That original label is in English, legible, prominent, and permanently affixed. The applicant also provides remote pilot operating instructions on sale, transfer, or use by someone else. Those instructions cover the system description and limitations, modifications that will not change the aircraft's ability to meet the category, and how to verify or change a variable mode or configuration.
Section 107.115(b) adds one operating limit that weight and a label do not cover. No remote pilot may operate in sustained flight over an open-air assembly unless the operation meets §89.110 or §89.115(a). Standard Remote ID is §89.110. A broadcast module is §89.115(a). The broader map of the four categories is on the operations over people page. Category 2 stays on this injury number and this paperwork.
How to apply it
Before a flight over people, read the operating instructions for the exact configuration you will fly. Confirm the serial number is inside the range on the accepted declaration. Confirm the label is present and names Category 2. If the label is damaged, destroyed, or missing, stop and apply §107.135 before anyone is overflown. The remote pilot labels the aircraft in English so the label is legible, prominent, and will remain for the duration of the operation. The words have to name the category the aircraft is actually qualified to conduct. A torn manufacturer label does not end the flight by itself, and it does not require a new declaration for that single flight. Continuing with no label at all fails the rule.
If you will hold, circle, or fly back and forth over an open-air assembly, the Remote ID condition in §107.115(b) has to be true for that operation. A Part 89 product label is a different record from the Subpart D declaration. It can satisfy the assembly condition when the operation meets §89.110 or §89.115(a). It does not, by itself, put the aircraft on a Category 2 declaration.
A street-festival shoot
A production company hands you a small aircraft whose declaration lists Category 2 and whose operating instructions allow the camera already installed. The 11 foot-pound standard, the shrouded rotors, and the absence of a known safety defect are why the applicant could declare it. You are the remote pilot, so you do not open a new declaration in the parking lot. You do check the list, the label, and the instructions. The label has torn off in the case. You write a legible English label, fix it so it will stay on for this flight, and name Category 2. Then you launch.
The festival crowd is an open-air assembly, and this flight is about that festival, so it is related to the assembly. A hover over the stage is sustained flight, and so is a short hop from one camera position to the next setup for the same shoot. Neither one is the brief, unrelated transit. Sustained flight over the assembly requires standard Remote ID or a broadcast module under §107.115(b). The Category 3 page uses a higher injury number and forbids the assembly outright.
The trap
The three injury and weight thresholds get swapped on the test. Eleven foot-pounds, with no lacerating exposed rotating parts and no safety defects, is Category 2 under §107.120(a). Twenty-five foot-pounds is Category 3. A takeoff weight of 0.55 pounds, including everything attached, is Category 1. Picking the heavier energy number or the light-aircraft weight makes the item wrong even when the rest of the sentence sounds strict.
The second trap assigns the declaration to the wrong person. Section 107.160 puts the filing on the applicant who asks the FAA to accept the declaration. It is not a line on every preflight, and air traffic control does not create it when it issues a LAANC authorization. The third trap is the torn label. Section 107.135 lets the remote pilot replace a damaged, destroyed, or missing Category 2 or Category 3 label in English for that operation. The rule does not say to launch unlabeled because the factory once applied a sticker, and it does not say to file a new declaration before that one flight.
Work the three items on the free practice test. The course walks the declaration, the label, and the assembly condition as separate checks.