Operating a drone in Georgia

The Operator ID has to be on the airframe or in the battery compartment, legible and indelible, so the owner can be identified if the aircraft is lost or involved in an incident.

On uas.gov.ge, inside your account, you add the aircraft yourself. If the model is not in the list of factory drones, it is added as a home-built one and you fill in the fields the site asks for.

No. An operator registration obtained in an EU member state does not apply in Georgia — and a Georgian registration applies only in Georgia.

The online portal is only for people who hold a Georgian ID card or an electronic residence card. Everybody else has to go to the agency in person in Tbilisi (Ortachala, at the start of I Kheivani street) with a passport, an active Georgian mobile number for the SMS, and access to the email address used for the registration. It is free and takes a few minutes.

An online multiple-choice theory test, free of charge. The A1/A3 exam is 40 questions, the pass mark is 75 per cent, and the certificate is valid for five years.

Flying close to people (A2) needs self-conducted practical training in A3 conditions, a declaration that you have done it, and an additional theory exam of at least 30 questions on top of the 40-question one.

No. It is valid only in Georgia. For Europe the agency itself points to the free online course and test run by Luxembourg's civil aviation authority (DAC), which ends in a European A1–A3 certificate valid across EASA member states.

The aircraft belongs to one of the defined classes, or is home-built and meets the agency's rules; the maximum take-off mass is under 25 kg; it stays a safe distance from people and never flies over assemblies of people; the pilot keeps it in visual line of sight, except in follow-me mode or when using an observer; it stays within 120 metres of the surface, except when clearing an obstacle; it carries no dangerous goods and drops nothing.

The general rule is an operational authorisation from the agency. If the operation fits a standard scenario, a declaration is enough instead. Neither is needed if the operator — and only a legal person can be one — holds a Light UAS Operator Certificate (LUC) with the matching privileges, or if the flight is inside an authorised model aircraft organisation.

Four things: the operator's registration number; the name of the head of the legal person, or the first name and surname of a natural person; the operational risk assessment; and the list of mitigating measures the operator has worked out. Proof of insurance was taken off that list in 2023.

The open category has no logbook duty at all, whether you fly for money or for fun. In the specific category the operator has to keep records of the operation and hold them for at least three years.

The risk assessment for a specific-category operation has ten steps: describing the concept of operations, the ground risk class (GRC), the air risk class (ARC), tactical mitigation requirements, assurance and integrity levels, the operational safety objectives (OSO), adjacent area considerations and the final safety portfolio.

Both the aircraft and the operation are certified: flight over assemblies of people, carrying people, or carrying dangerous goods that could put third parties at high risk in a serious incident. It also covers any operation whose risk the agency judges cannot be reduced without certification.

With a class C0 aircraft you may overfly uninvolved persons, but never an assembly of people. With class C1, flying over assemblies of people is prohibited and overflying uninvolved persons has to be kept to a minimum. Follow-me mode stays within 50 metres of the pilot. Class C1 needs the online theory exam.

The aircraft never overflies uninvolved persons and keeps at least 30 metres of horizontal distance from them. That comes down to no less than 5 metres with an active low-speed mode, weighing the weather, the aircraft's characteristics and how well the flight area is segregated. It needs a class C2 aircraft with active direct remote identification and geo-awareness.

Fly where no uninvolved person will be put at risk, at least 150 metres from residential, commercial, industrial or recreational areas. The aircraft is under 25 kg, or marked as class C2, C3, C4 or above. The theory exam is the same one A1 asks for.

Allowed in the open category, as long as the category's conditions and the personal-data rules are respected. Flying over and filming private land needs the owner's prior consent — the operator must not infringe third parties' rights.

A specific-category operation near an airport needs an additional permission from the agency. Even in the open category, the agreement with the aerodrome operator is made before the flight, not after it.

No. Recreational flight is allowed in the open category as long as the category's conditions are met.

Allowed. The same rules apply: registration is compulsory and the requirements are identical.

The open category's condition says the pilot flies the aircraft within visual line of sight, except in follow-me mode and except when using an observer. An observer is a person standing beside you who can see the aircraft with their own eyes and talk to you. That is the person every FPV pilot already flies with.

Arbitrary, non-factory changes to the airframe are prohibited: every modification alters the mass, the handling and the safety characteristics. The aircraft has to keep matching the class and weight the manufacturer defined for it.

Agricultural work — pollination, spraying, flying with a slung load — counts as a higher-risk operation and needs the agency's permission. So does cleaning or washing building facades with a drone.

That is a certified-category operation: it cannot be flown in the open or the specific category. The same goes for an international flight.

A drone must not cross another state's territory without that state's permission, applied for at least seven days before the flight. Flying over the high seas needs prior coordination with the air traffic service.

In the standard scenarios (STS-01 and STS-02) the pilot flies only one unmanned aircraft at a time.