Bordeaux_Jim wrote:
The funny thing is, if you want to get level 6 English on a French licence, you can only do the DGAC exam, BUT if you don’t speak French, you can’t even get level 4, because all the questions in the English exam are in French !
I love it !! Thats just so French… 
With regard to French language proficiency, the regulations refer to the language to be USED (i.e. “FR only”) on the chart. The qualification is secondary to that, and there is no mention of needing a FR language endorsement simply to use French on the radio (but you’d be pretty damn stupid to try it if you didn’t have a reasonable level).
The only thing you MUST have is English proficiency, in 2 cases :
1. To obtain an instrument rating
2. To fly in a country where you do not speak the language (English by default).
I have a French PPL with French level 6. I didn’t have to do an exam to get it, it was given to me as a default, because without it, my licence would have been invalid.
I only needed to pass an exam to get English proficiency, which I did at the DGAC testing center in Orly. The funny thing is, if you want to get level 6 English on a French licence, you can only do the DGAC exam, BUT if you don’t speak French, you can’t even get level 4, because all the questions in the English exam are in French !
@TobiBS with the BZF I am allowed to speak German in Germany. So this is kind of a level 6 but limited to Germany.
A real (EASA FCL) level 6 would have allowed me to speak German also in Swiss and Austria. But I am not sure that I will understand their accent, having already trouble with the Swabian one here in south Germany 
To keep my license valid, I need to have a valid ELP ( in my case, I have English level 4 so I have to renew it).
Sometimes, we pilots are such good citizens and try to do everything the very last letter of the law. When the law is very complex or even incomprehensible long discussions can result.
My recommendation to the poster (as others have said too) is to take the pragmatic approach. If you get a French PPL with French and English LP on the licence, then I wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep worrying about speaking Italian on the radio in Italy. Perhaps someone has a documented story (not here-say) of a pilot being fined for speaking the local without local language LP on his licence, but my expectation is that none of us would ever run into an issue speaking the local language unless it was really obvious that we had no business trying in which case one should probably stick to English or stay nordo. Of course, that implies one should know aviation terminology in that language. If you are native Italian, no one on the radio in Italy would ever even think to ask to see the LP on your certificate. Why would they? How many English-speaking natives here on this forum (even Scots or Irish ) have ever been asked to show their English LP, anywhere?
And of course English is accepted everywhere in CAS, and the question only applies to local-language-only airfields.
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.
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.
@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.
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.
