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Italian pilot with French licence on Italian radio

Does Italy have any IT-only airfields, in the way that France has some FR-only airfields?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Maoraigh wrote:

It took me several years, and several applications, to get level 6 English on my UK PPL. English is my native language.

Funny factoid: In ELPAC, the ELP test designed by Eurocontrol, one of the requirements for a level 6 is to be able to adapt one’s speech to be understood by a “less fluent” speaker. E.g. say “mock” or even “make fun of you / try to make you angry” instead of “take the piss”. In the exam session where I got my level 6 ELP, there was another candidate, a native English speaker. She failed the level 6. My theory is that while she spoke perfect idiomatic English, she didn’t show sufficient ability to adapt her speech.

Last Edited by lionel at 10 Mar 19:36
ELLX

Peter wrote:

Does Italy have any IT-only airfields, in the way that France has some FR-only airfields?

None that I’m aware of but of course in a lot of the smaller airfields there will be someone speaking something you would not to recognize as english.

If I may say I find this topic quite bizzare and , after just checking, relieved to have an Italian level 6 i was not aware of.

Pegaso airstrip, Italy

I love flying in Italy, do so every year and have landed throughout the country from the Dolomites to Veneto to Umbria, Tuscany, Rome, Salerno, Puglia, Calabria, Sicily, always in English. But I have no doubt that ATC would have been just as happy (no, happier) to be speaking Italian. I’m willing to bet 5000 EUR that even if they discover you hold a French license, they will not demand French radio calls!

I have landed at unattended fields using English and at ultra light fields where no one spoke English. Everyone was friendly. After all, it’s Italy.

To answer the OP’s original question, you will have absolutely no problem using Italian for your radio calls, unless I happen to be in the pattern. :). The larger airports might switch you over to English for the benefit of commercial traffic or the occasional inbound British, German or US pilot.

Last Edited by WhiskeyPapa at 10 Mar 21:09
Tököl LHTL

lionel wrote:

Under EASA rules, if you have ELP on your licence, that’s all you need. You can use radiotelephony in any language used by the ground station: French in France, southern Belgium (some airfields) and western Switzerland, Italian in Italy, German in Germany and Austria, etc.

Just in case, do you have an actual reference for this? Thanks!

tmo
EPKP - Kraków, Poland

tmo wrote:

Just in case, do you have an actual reference for this? Thanks!

FCL.055(a): General. Aeroplane, helicopter, powered-lift and airship pilots required to use the radio telephone shall not exercise the privileges of their licences and ratings unless they have a language proficiency endorsement on their licence in either English or the language used for radio communications involved in the flight. The endorsement shall indicate the language, the proficiency level and the validity date.

Note that as the rule is phrased nothing restrict you to speaking English if you have an English LP.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Note that as the rule is phrased nothing restrict you to speaking English if you have an English LP.

Isn’t that what I posted above? However not everyone agrees.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

@Qalupalik wrote:

Assuming you are required to operate an aircraft radio station while exercising Part-FCL licence or rating privileges then you must have a language proficiency endorsement for English or the language to be used. This requirement is made in FCL.055.

What if the language to be used does not have a documented language proficiency? E.g. Greek. Loads of pilots speak it on the frequency but there is no “GLP” you can put on your license.

ESME, ESMS

I think it is the same issue i.e. a Greek speaker can fly within Greece, but if he wants to fly to Italy he needs ELP on his license, and that makes the flight legal even if not a single ATCO in Italian airspace can speak English.

And he cannot legally fly to Italy even if he speaks perfect Italian and crosses directly from Greek airspace to Italian airspace. Obviously, in this case nobody will find out

I hope I got this right, because it is quite bizzare.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

@Dimme

A valid English language proficiency endorsement would satisfy FCL.055. That point only applies when use of the radio telephone is required.

Peter wrote:

… a Greek speaker can fly within Greece, but if he wants to fly to Italy he needs ELP on his license…

And in Greece when the radio telephone is required assuming no Greek language proficiency endorsement is available.

London, United Kingdom
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