Peter wrote:
One thing I immediately notice is the lack of definition of “French pilot”. French passport holder?
The way it is written in the French text, it means someone of French nationality
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WingsWaterAndWheels wrote:
And that also means that someone who can speak French but is not French can decide to use French or English without any specific reason :-)
This is correct. I am a Belgian national, with a French licence, when I inquired with the DGAC – their interpretation was exactly what you state above.
Airborne_Again wrote:
I would say that whoever does the R/T must have a R/T license.
I think you can do without legally in many cases: if flying with an FI (not sure if you need to be student), on specific frequencies/flying (case of gliding in UK)
You can also try that not legally with a PPL: last time I heard a child voice trying few RT calls, so ATC went hard on him for fun, he replied under stress “c’est papa qui pilote, je vous le passe” 
I think that made a big smile for everybody on frequency and I am sure the father did not lose his licence…
There is a commonsensical way to approach this: if there’s a lot of chatter in French and heavy traffic and ATC can’t communicate with you in English, fly somewhere else. If the place is deserted, communicate position in English and land. Then figure out how to arrange transportation. Peter’s idea of making contact with the locals before arrival is a good one. Dark scenarios are rare. And I am speaking as one who has been arrested for landing at a non-port of entry after a weather diversion (not because of language).. Fear should not stop you from going and using common sense.
Here’s what the Italians are requesting for a fly in this weekend:
RADIO PROCEDURE
The approach procedure without radio transmission is frequently followed in the United States even in situations of intense traffic. One of the most important examples is the Fun’n Fun event, where thousands of planes take off and land without the pilots talking to the ground operator via radio.
Keep only listening on 130.00 (Castiglione Biga) without ever going on transmission unless it is deemed strictly necessary. Castiglione Biga supplies the QNH value on which to set the on-board altimeter. It also provides any information about your relative position (example: “red aircraft high wing you are third in the final”) or launches alert messages (example: “red aircraft high wing in the final hangs up!”). The pilot must never respond to this information.
Wow! That makes sense!
It seems that Torino Aeritalia (LIMA) is asking for italian proficiency, as some of the little french airfield. I’m actually studying this airfield to visit some of my family.
A funny and quite surprising story actually happened to me last year inbound Fayence-LFMF. I made my approach reporting my position (overhead, downwind, …), and german glider pilot were speaking on the frequency… They don’t even answer in french, they were just discussing in german. They were not even in the air, just in opposite places of the airfield…
I don’t think an airfield (or their regulator) can (legally) impose a certain language proficiency. It is not their cup of tea as this is a licensing question for the national aviation authority issuing the license.
They can report you to the CAA, or to the airport police for a papers check.
They can also do this which effectively blocks you doing anything in terms of movements (at a controlled airport). Many years ago I got something similar at, coincidentally an airport in France, when I tried to file, manually in those days, an IFR flight plan, but the ATCO suspected I didn’t have an IR, but he could not say it, so he just kept repeating “invalid route”. Conditions were VMC but below the airport’s minimum cloudbase which was then 1200ft.
But yes obviously if you are in say France and you are speaking what sounds like French, but without understanding anything, then nobody will say anything provided nothing goes wrong.
Around these glider airfields, especially in this season with thermics, there is a lot of traffic and you can get really close with them or the tractors because they don’t pay too much attention to exteral traffic. It happened to me twice in 2 weeks and I am french, so I don’t imagine what could happen if you go with english. I give up with these airfields for the some time.
greg_mp wrote:
Around these glider airfields, especially in this season with thermics, there is a lot of traffic and you can get really close with them or the tractors because they don’t pay too much attention to exteral traffic.
On many of those airfields (let’s say more than 10 VFR aircrafts in 2nm ATZ mixing wood, plastic and titanium where half is non-radio and some are dropping meat, tugging gliders or selling local brands ), I don’t feel RT in any language is useful for situational awareness and collision avoidance (even having radar/tcas/flarm warnings does not help neither and I always switch off on these), you just look outside ahead/left/right all time with a “final RT call” and hope for the best !
So I either I fly from there and I know by name who is up there or I just simply avoid while en-route or as destination…
