Luxembourg man brings first plane rally to Georgia

A European aviation enthusiast is on cloud nine after coming to Georgia and discussing his plans to create the country's first long range private pilot rally, involving 20 small planes and bringing dozens of European flying enthusiasts to Georgia.

A Luxembourg man only named as Peter met Georgia’s State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration David Bakradze earlier this month to discuss his idea of establishing the first long-range private pilot rally that flies from Europe directly into Georgia. Current rules inhibit private plane entrance into Georgian airspace.

The 2016 long range tourist rally to Georgia we're planning to setup will bring some 20 small planes and a group of some 40 to 50 persons to Georgia from various European countries,” said Peter on his blog post.

The Cessna 182 flies out of Tbilisi International Airport. Photo by privatepilotstories.blogspot.com. 

While organising the September 2016 rally Peter faced several obstacles.

"In preparation of our visit to Georgia, I got confronted with the fact that you cannot just rent a plane in Georgia as elsewhere in the EU, by just showing your flight license. In Georgia, you need to have a local pilot sitting next to you,” he explained.

"Although located in Europe, Georgia is not (yet) part of the EU. That's why I contacted the Georgian State Minister for EU and Euro and Atlantic integration, Mr David Bakradze and addressed this problem to him asking to for meeting to explain our plans”.

Not long after Bakradze replied directly to Peter, said he was "willing to give it a go” and invited him and fellow rally organiser Jean Birgen to Georgia to discuss their plans. This would be the first long range tourist rally to Georgia.

Some pilots will fly all the way with their planes from Western Europe to Georgia (some 2500 NM + 2500 NM return), some others will try to rent planes in nearby Turkey and some pilots might be interested to rent a plane locally in Georgia,” said Peter.

On August 4 Peter met Bakradze at the Government Administration Building. 

"Bakradze proved to be a young, dynamic and very charming person. He warmly welcomed us at his office. We discussed for almost an hour about general aviation topics,” said Peter. "He seemed to have a profound interest in our story and proved to be a good listener. State Minister David Bakradze explained [to] us that he sees the benefits of having the general aviation developed in his country.”

Aviation enthusiast Peter (second left) and fellow race organiser Jean Birgen (centre) with State Minister on European and Euro-Atlantic Integragion David Bakradze (second right) in Tbilisi. Photo by privatepilotstories.blogspot.com

That afternoon Peter also met with representatives of the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency and spoke about the logistics of establishing the private pilot rally.

Peter, a member of the Luxembourg Pilot’s Club, left the meeting with Bakradze full of hope that his dream to host the first long range plane rally to Georgia will be a success.

Read the full blog post here.