Law decides whether your flight happens at all and who pays if something goes wrong. In this module you will work out who sets the flying rules in Georgia. You will learn where a paraglider pilot may fly and up to what height. You will understand who gives way in the air and which documents to keep on you at launch. After the module you will answer the federation’s four exam questions on this subject with confidence. And, more importantly, you will not create problems for yourself or for others in the skies over Gudauri. The module is written both for a beginner and for a practising pilot: the sections include “fine point for pros” blocks and case studies.
⏱ 80 min📖 24 sections✓ 40 questions
Who sets the rules: ICAO, the Air Code and the GCAA
Georgia is a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization — ICAO. Membership obliges the country to maintain its own legal framework and to build its airspace to international standards. That is why a pilot arriving in Gudauri from Europe finds the familiar airspace classes, the familiar rules of separation and the familiar units of measurement.
The principal aviation law in Georgia is the Air Code of Georgia. It is adopted by Parliament. The Code sets the frame: what aviation is, who regulates it, how powers are divided. It says almost nothing about how airspace is organised. Those details are written into the regulator’s orders and into the aeronautical publications.
Civil aviation is regulated by the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency (GCAA). It is a legal entity of public law under the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development. The Agency writes the industry rules, carries out continuous oversight and control, and provides services.
Aviation in Georgia is divided into civil and state aviation. Not into “military and civil”, and not into “light, medium and heavy”. Those pairs are the classic traps in the official question list of the national paragliding federation.
The structure and design of the airspace is also set by the GCAA. The logic is direct: whoever regulates the sky also decides how it is cut into areas and classes.
The exam often asks what counts as the territory of a state. In international law it is the space under the country’s sovereignty, delimited by the state border. It includes the land, internal waters, the subsoil, the adjacent territorial waters and the air above all of it. The sky over Gudauri is as much a part of Georgia as the mountain itself.
The hierarchy of documents. At the top the Constitution, below it the Air Code, below that the Government’s decrees and the orders of the GCAA director, and at the very bottom the aeronautical publications — the AIP and NOTAMs. The lower the document, the more detailed it is and the more often it changes.
Article 5 of the Code establishes Georgia’s complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory. Article 16 gives the Agency the power to define flight information regions, control areas and zones, and prohibited, danger and restricted areas.
Who else is in this system. Sakaeronavigatsia LLC — air navigation services, the AIP, NOTAMs, and the search and rescue coordination centre. The national paragliding federation — the operator of all thirteen areas and the examination board. The Ministry of Internal Affairs stops an unlawful flight. The federation itself is supervised by the Agency: it can suspend the federation’s activity, and paragliding is then banned outright.
A fine point for pros. The federation’s decisions are individual administrative acts. The procedure follows Chapter VI of the General Administrative Code, and the acts themselves are appealed in the ordinary courts of Georgia. A refusal to recognise a sub-category is not the board’s opinion but a document with stated reasons. Ask for it in writing: without the paper there is nothing to appeal.
The document in force: Order No. 165, not Decree No. 175
There is some confusion in Georgian paragliding law. Better to learn about it now than at a flight debrief.
Decree No. 175 of the Government of Georgia of 10 May 2023 approved the rules of flight, operation and safety for paragliders. It ceased to have effect on 31 August 2023.
What is in force now is Order No. 165 of the GCAA director, of 30 August 2023 — as amended by Order No. 209 of 19 September 2024. It is the basis on which flying sites and operators are certified, pilot licences are issued and equipment is checked.
The federation’s exam material still cites Decree No. 175. Some of the figures in the two acts do not match. The most visible example is the CC (Cross Country) sub-category: the route for CC is 30 km, which is what the federation requires in practice, although the published text of No. 165 says 21 km. The instructor categories changed too: No. 175 had a T&FD category with sub-categories I and FD, while No. 165 has I&FD, to which the IA sub-category (instructor assistant) was added. There is one rule: study and fly by No. 165, and keep the discrepancies in mind as history.
The good news: the official question list of the national paragliding federation does not touch these disputed figures. The air-law questions are about the Code, the regulator, the airspace classes, the units of measurement and separation in the air. On those, both acts say the same thing.
How to check what is in force. All Georgian legal acts are published in the gazette at matsne.gov.ge, and the GCAA director’s orders are mirrored on gcaa.ge.
Open the document’s record and look at its status: in force or repealed.
Check the list of amendments — for No. 165 it includes Order No. 209 of 19 September 2024.
Download the consolidated version as of the date you need and check the figure your study material quotes against it.
A fine point for pros. In places the federation’s exam material cites not even No. 175 but a 2019 act of the Civil Aviation Agency — that is how the right-of-way questions are explained. At the exam answer according to the official explanation, but in an argument about how to fly, rely on the order that is actually in force.
Case study. The route for the CC sub-category is 30 km. The published text of Order No. 165 says 21 km, and that discrepancy is worth keeping in mind. What the student does: asks the federation which version the board is using for the practical exam this season. Why: the difference between 21 and 30 kilometres is the difference between “made it” and “landed behind the pass”.
How Georgian airspace is built: the FIR, control areas and zones
Airspace is a layer cake, and the paraglider pilot lives in the bottom layer.
FIR — flight information region. The volume in which the state is responsible for flight services: providing information, alerting, and organising search and rescue. Georgia has one — the Tbilisi FIR, designator UGGG. Its lateral limits follow the state borders, and vertically it runs from the ground upwards without limit. It is served by Tbilisi ACC and the Tbilisi FIS flight information service.
Controlled volumes are carved out inside the FIR:
CTA — an en-route control area. There are two: CTA East and CTA West, from FL085 or 2,000 ft (610 m) above the ground up to FL660, class C.
TMA — a terminal control area around an airport. The Tbilisi one has eleven sectors: the top at FL195, the base from 3,500 to 8,500 ft (1,070–2,590 m) above sea level. Kutaisi also has eleven sectors, with the lower limit from 1,500 ft (455 m), and Batumi has four.
CTR — a control zone right down at the ground, around an aerodrome.
Everything not carved out remains class G. That is where paragliders live. There is not emptiness above you but a working system: Tbilisi Approach listens on 134.600 MHz, and the area control centre on 125.125 MHz.
A fine point for pros. The lower limits of controlled volumes are given in two ways: in feet above sea level and in flight levels. FL085 is not 8,500 ft (2,590 m) above the sea but a height on the standard pressure of 1013.2 hPa. On a cold day with low pressure the real height of the level is a hundred or two hundred metres lower than the figure suggests. Take your margin with the weather in mind, not right up to the line.
Case study. A route west out of Gudauri. The instrument shows 9,800 ft (2,990 m) with 700 ft (210 m) left to the ceiling of the area — so the ceiling itself is 10,500 ft (3,200 m). Above that you are outside the area, and that is a violation.
What the "10,000" is. It is not a target you have to reach. It is a line the pilot sets for himself, in advance and below the real ceiling, with a margin of about 500 ft (150 m). The point is not "climb up to 10,000" but "at 10,000 I definitely stop".
Why the line sits below the ceiling and not right on it. The logic here is the opposite of the obvious one. It feels like this: the climb is strong, there is plenty of height, I will get one more turn in. In fact it is the other way round — the harder it takes you up, the earlier you must stop circling.
In a strong thermal height changes very fast. You see 9,800 ft (2,990 m) on the instrument, one turn of the spiral goes by — and it already reads 10,600 ft (3,230 m). A single turn has thrown you 800 ft (240 m) up.
The wing does not stop climbing instantly. You have decided to leave, you are falling out of the core, and it still pulls up for a few more seconds. In weak lift that is nothing; in strong lift it is another hundred metres.
Put the two together. If you hold on until the instrument shows the ceiling itself, 10,500 ft, then while you think it over and come out of the spiral you are already past 10,600 ft. The ceiling is broken.
Why not stop straight away? You can: stopping at 9,800 ft (2,990 m) is even safer and nobody forbids it. The lesson does not say "climb to 10,000" — it shows the latest moment at which you can still calmly stop circling and set off on the glide without busting the area. 10,000 ft is your "no further", with a margin for the inertia of the climb and for your own reaction.
The short version: a strong climb is not spare height, it is a shortage of reaction time. That is why the line goes below the ceiling, not right on it. The stronger the thermal, the bigger the margin.
Airspace classes and the flight rules
The airspace of every ICAO country is divided to a single standard — into classes from A to G. The classes differ in who needs a controller’s clearance, whom the controller separates from whom, and what radio and visibility are required.
The controlled classes are A, B, C, D and E.
The uncontrolled classes are F and G. If G is the only one of them among the answer options, that is the right answer.
In the Tbilisi flight information region (Tbilisi FIR — the area in which Georgia is responsible for flight services) only two classes are used: C and G. Classes A, B, D, E and F are not applied in Georgia. Paragliders fly in uncontrolled class G. No controller’s clearance is needed there — but neither is there a controller to separate you from an oncoming aircraft. Separation is your own responsibility.
In Georgian skies both instrument flight rules (IFR) and visual flight rules (VFR) apply. Not “visual only” and not “instrument only” — both, depending on the type of flight. A paraglider flies exclusively under VFR. That means: only in daylight, between sunrise and sunset, and with the ground in sight at all times. Above FL200 (about 6,100 metres) visual flights are not made without a clearance.
You may not enter controlled airspace without the consent of the authorised body. For a paraglider pilot that is not an abstract rule. If a flying site falls inside an aerodrome control zone, flying there is possible only in coordination with Sakaeronavigatsia LLC.
What the class means in practice:
Feature
Class C, visual flight
Class G, visual flight
Controller’s clearance
Required
Not required
Who is separated
Visual from instrument traffic
Nobody
What the service provides
Control and traffic information
Flight information on request
Radio
Continuous two-way
Two-way or other means
The line that says “nobody is separated” is the most important one. The service will answer a request, but it is not obliged to separate you from oncoming traffic and most often cannot even see you: a paraglider carries no transponder and does not show up on radar.
A fine point for pros. “Uncontrolled” does not mean “nobody’s”. In class G the same visibility minima, the same rules of separation and the same liability apply. The difference is that nobody is watching compliance in real time. A breach surfaces later — in the investigation of an accident, or in an insurer’s refusal.
An airspace boundary in flight: how to see it and what to do if you enter unintentionally
Airspace boundaries are drawn with coordinates, not fences, and in the air you cannot see them. Working with a boundary means working with your instruments and with a margin.
Before the flight. Load the boundaries into your instrument or your phone: flying apps read the OpenAir format, draw the areas on the map and warn you by voice. The boundaries themselves come from the AIP — section ENR 5.5 for the paragliding areas and ENR 5.1 for prohibited and restricted ones.
In the air, keep three margins:
In height. Decide in advance where you stop climbing. Something like 150–200 metres below the ceiling of the area is sensible.
Laterally. You do not approach a lateral boundary closely: drift on a glide eats hundreds of metres in a minute.
In time. A climb of 5 metres per second is 300 metres a minute — faster than you can think about it.
If you do end up inside:
Stop climbing: leave the spiral, take big ears or use the speed system.
Leave for your own area by the shortest way, not along your route.
Tell the flight director where you are and where you are going.
After landing, note the time, the height and the coordinates and report to the federation.
A fine point for pros. Your instrument shows a pressure height, while airspace boundaries are given above sea level. If the QNH has changed during the day and you have not reset it, the error reaches 50–100 metres and never in your favour. Set the QNH in the morning and check it again if the weather has changed.
Case study. On a glide a pilot catches a powerful climb and finds himself at 10,700 ft (3,260 m) — 200 ft (60 m) above the UGA8 ceiling. What he does: goes down on the speed system, reports on the radio, and saves the track after landing. Why: the track with its barograph trace is the only objective document. It will also protect the pilot if somebody claims he hung above the ceiling for half an hour.
What follows is for our students
The full module text, the practice sessions and the exams are open to those who train with us. Access is included in the course fee: it runs for the whole course and for three months after it ends.
If you are training with us now, or have trained with us before, sign in with your access code. If you are a pilot from another school, access can be bought separately.
Language: the sections above are in English. Behind the code the full module text and the question bank are currently in Russian — the English versions are being prepared.
The material prepares you for the theory exam of the national paragliding federation, but it does not replace practice with an instructor. The pilot licence is issued by the federation after its own exams. Book a course.
