Done. Still works today.
italianjon wrote:
Anyone think we should start learning Chinese?
No.
Despite China’s economic rise, China will never be an international language while their writing system remains so byzantine that even well educated native Chinese speakers often struggle with their own writing system.
Mandating English ATC at L2K would make all the Brits happy, but would exclude 90% of the French pilot population access to an airport on French soil.
It is the same at the airports concerned by the poll. All French pilots that want to transit through the airspaces concerned will have to be English proficient and 90% of French PPLs will be excluded.
This measure should be based on voluntary participation, or worst case imposed upon commercial operators. That would take care of most of the perceived issue and you would have to put up with the rest.
If not I will change my position on FR-only airports in favour of making all other French airports FR-only, starting with L2K
Does anyone know what this consultation is really about?
IMHO, in the present climate where we already have this law, there is zero chance of anything happening as suggested. There is a strong “national culture preservation” motive.
The above mentioned law may perhaps be repealed but according to posts here by French ATCOs it is not being enforced anyway. It might however encourage pilots to speak French when they could perfectly well speak English, especially if it is an airliner which has flown all the way from the USA speaking English all the way to the French border.
What I would like to see, based on many hours of flying in France, is much better ELP in France where it is required. So often, e.g. Lille is barely legible and many ATIS broadcasts likewise. La Rochelle ATIS used to be a spectacular example and some of their ATC not much better. I am sure all are perfectly legible to French speakers but that is always the case; a native of Language X understands any English which is heavily accented in X even if nobody else does. So either nobody there sees a problem, or they do but the ICAO ELP stuff has been comprehensively swept under the carpet everywhere – except for GA pilots 
Timothy wrote:
With respect, I don’t think that the controller’s head is the problem. The issue lies in local language pilots not understanding the anglophone conversations and vice versa.
Have to disagree here, Timothy. In a former life (many, many moons ago), I was a translator / interpreter. Believe me, after hours of live interpreting and constantly switching between languages your brain is fried. I have seen (or better – heard) this time and again when flying in Spain, where the poor controller was switching back and forth all the time and then lost the plot. At some point I started to do most r/t in Spanish. It simply felt the safer thing to do.
That said, I fail to comprehend that someone who is able to obtain a pilot’s license isn’t able to learn standard phraseology in English. IMHO it’s pure ignorance, or dumb national pride. Btw, all Spanish pilots I know speak decent to very good English.
I think I disagree (and language was my job always). Many French, especially when they are a bit older and did not learn English in school, have a hard time learning English well, and on the contrary even if you have French in school (me, 5 years) it is next to impossible to understand French radio …
I’ve filled it in. We visit France often, and do our absolute level best to make the most effort we can to speak French. When on the ground…
I’ve learned the ‘aviation’ French crib sheet off by heart, but being brutally honest, I really cannot understand anything more than a very small percentage of French RT. It’s too fast, too indistinct, and frankly can’t cope with it. I accept this is my failing, and no-one else’s.
BUT… and this is a big but. I have, on many, many occasions heard other nationalities on the radio in France. Dutch, German, Spanish and so on. They are of course all speaking English – because there’s little other alternative.
I don’t mean this to come across as some kind of weird bigoted Imperialistic rubbish, but really, I think we need one language for aviation RT, and realistically, that language needs to be English.
I don’t mean this to come across as some kind of weird bigoted Imperialistic rubbish, but really, I think we need one language for aviation RT, and realistically, that language needs to be English.
Yes, of course. I think when it’s about aviation we should not even think about countries. English is the right CODE for professional RT in aviation, that’s all.
stevelup wrote:
I have, on many, many occasions heard other nationalities on the radio in France. Dutch, German, Spanish and so on. They are of course all speaking English – because there’s little other alternative.
Except if you hear me, I will be speaking French (despite not being French).
172driver wrote:
That said, I fail to comprehend that someone who is able to obtain a pilot’s license isn’t able to learn standard phraseology in English.
With the same argument, you could state that “someone who is able to obtain a pilot’s license should be able to learn a few phrases in French”.
I would of course reply to both statements that being able to do a pilot’s license has nothing to do with the ability to learn foreign languages.
