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Flying into French Language Only (FR-only) airfields (and French ATC ELP)

yeah, sure… listening to ATC helps, but not when you are at a stage where you don’t get what they are saying. Guess this arrives at a nice YouTube-project for the winter season: Finding a suitable french who reads through the phrases so that people like me have a starting point to learn aviation french…

LSZF Birrfeld, LFSB Basel-Mulhouse, Switzerland

MW,

What you are trying to do does not make much sense though. If your French is so non-existent that you don‘t even know how to pronounce numbers and basic words, then you likely won‘t understand a word of what other pilots in the area/circuit will say. You just can‘t rely on that other pilots will clear the circuit/area just because they hear a British pilot say in broken French that he is somehow occupying the circuit.

So, suggest you learn proper French first (expect a few years, it‘s a difficult language), or you go to a different airfield. If you really want to use such airfield, suggest you go against the rule and just announce (slowly and clearly) in English. But even that might not help, because if your pronounciation of the airfield name is far off (and I have heard some really absurd airfiled name permutations on the radio by foreign pilots), then nobody will really know you are there. Actually, you will cause even more havoc, because all pilots on that frequency will be alarmed and terrified…

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

boscomantico wrote:

and I have heard some really absurd airfiled name permutations on the radio by foreign pilots

Try flying in Iceland!

Bosco, valid points. My intention is far away from just memorizing some phrases and then flying across France and assuming everything will be fine.
Instead, the idea is to have a starting point to learn that language. So, when comparing with French lessons at school, at some time I “just” want to be proficient enough to ‘survive’ the simple everyday life stuff and subsequently being proficient enough in understanding the French aviation phrases.
The latter could help understanding (not necessarily speaking) French radio messages while arriving at an airfield in France. Same as it is helpful to have an understanding of German radio phrases at German airfields.

While there are several ways to success when it comes to learning a language, in my view one way is to start by learning phrases.

LSZF Birrfeld, LFSB Basel-Mulhouse, Switzerland

Tumbleweed wrote:

you cannot get French LP put on any licence not issued by the French!

I don’t know about the Belgians, but you certainly would get an argument from the Swiss or the Canadians on that!

LSZK, Switzerland

chflyer wrote:

I’m afraid I don’t follow that point. Are you saying that France/DGAC isn’t compelled to recognize an international EASA/ICAO licence with only an ELP? I understood your point in citing the EASA paragraph earlier was just the opposite … ELP is always sufficient. Or did I misunderstand?

No, I’m saying that France doesn’t have to accept another state’s LP when it issues its own licences. If Marcpa were the holder of a UK-issued EASA Part-FCL licence and intending to exercise its privileges, France would not be able to require French language proficiency. But Marcpa is seeking to get a French Part-FCL licence issued. The DGAC is under no obligation to accept Marcpa’s English Language Proficiency: they could ask him to redo the language proficiency from scratch and that might mean doing French language proficiency — I don’t know if a state can insist on local LP when issuing a licence. Thus the “you can use the UK issued ELP but only if you go to English speaking airfields” might be a concession beyond what is required by the regulation, on which the DGAC has placed a condition, which it is entitled to do.

bookworm wrote:

No, I’m saying that France doesn’t have to accept another state’s LP when it issues its own licences. If Marcpa were the holder of a UK-issued EASA Part-FCL licence and intending to exercise its privileges, France would not be able to require French language proficiency. But Marcpa is seeking to get a French Part-FCL licence issued. The DGAC is under no obligation to accept Marcpa’s English Language Proficiency: they could ask him to redo the language proficiency from scratch and that might mean doing French language proficiency — I don’t know if a state can insist on local LP when issuing a licence.

What are the rules concerning transfer of licence state of administration then? My ratings and ELP were converted from UK EASA PPL to French EASA PPL without issue as I expected and was told would happen – are you suggesting that one country’s EASA PPL may not be equal to another’s?

Regards, SD..

No, I’m saying that France doesn’t have to accept another state’s LP when it issues its own licences

While this has been subject to local regulation, it seems this has changed in the meantime. At least there is the proposal of the EU to accept LPs EASA-wide as they have realized the current (past) rules could limit the ‘free movement of people within the EU’-requirement, respectively having the licence trapped at a regional CAA.

For whatever it’s worth, I have transferred my UK-licence to Switzerland, which has accepted the UKs LP (which they have reportedly not done in the past).

LSZF Birrfeld, LFSB Basel-Mulhouse, Switzerland

What a can of worms! Boy, does GA in Europe ever suffer from the whole ICAO LP boondoggle, and even more so considering that it was essentially created in the first place as a result of some non-native-English airline pilots (mostly Chinese I think) who couldn’t communicate with JFK ATC in English well enough to taxi to the gate, plus a few other similar hair-raising cases. AFAIK, this was never a real issue with European airline pilots before the LP was dreamed up.

LSZK, Switzerland

Just following up on this discussion. For English more and more online testing possibilities pop up. So maybe any new developments for French also? In the meantime are there any experiences if French level 4/5/6 can somehow be entered into German LBA licenses?
Finally any recent experiences how the French handle this?

www.ing-golze.de
EDAZ
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