Maybe the French pilots can tell more but after doing some French radio it seems the local pilots do not insist very much on the numbers. It seems to be “piste dix-huit” and not “piste unité huit”. I remember even ATC uses normal numbers for IFR levels etc. Is that correct or just accepted?
For me, understanding and reading back the numbers (transmitted in lightspeed) are the hardest thing.
Runways are easy, there are only 1 to 36 
Never heard runways greater 09 in single digits.
Transponder codes are transmitted in pairs: squawk 7041 – affichez soixante-dix quarante et un au transpondeur – still manageable with some training. Single digits are sometimes used.
Same for flight levels, VFR and IFR. Climb FL 80 – montez niveau quatre-vingt. Sometimes huit zéro.
Frequencies are, as they would phrase it, l‘horreur!
Contact Strasbourg on 134.575 – passez avec Strasbourg, cent treinte-quatre cinq cents soixante-quinze!
Mrs terbang
The most important numbers, the ones in the N-reg callsign “November Deux Cents Vingt Huit Romeo Miker” 
Sebastian_G wrote:
Maybe the French pilots can tell more but after doing some French radio it seems the local pilots do not insist very much on the numbers. It seems to be “piste dix-huit” and not “piste unité huit”.
As I recall things, pre-SERA, “piste dix-huit” was correct and official, and “piste unité huit” was wrong. That was specific to runway numbers, and didn’t apply to numbers in general. I think QNH/QFE values were also officially pronounced as whole numbers (or was it two groups of two-digits numbers?), not digit by digit.
With SERA, this changed “from above” (meaning EU law overrode French law), so in their “nothing will change in France due to SERA” approach, they just introduced an exception rule (officially named FRA 14035) that allows to say any number as a number. While the “official/tolerated” flipped, everyone just ignores the “officially official” and just speaks “as before”, or in the “unofficially official” way.
Usually for flight levels, if you are speaking in English the ATS will give the FL in English using English phraseology, the same goes for QNH and the transponder. If you go into eg class D airspace (eg La Rochelle LFBH) you will be given a transponder code. If you are speaking in French it will probably eg soixante cinq quatre vingt dix huit (6598) if you are speaking English it will be eg one two five zero (1250). You notice not only the different way of delivering numbers but also that French aircraft will often be given a code in the 60’s whereas English speaking pilots will normally start with 12.
It is difficult to change a French person’s phraseology as any changes take time to assimilate so the French tend to take a little ‘laissez faire’ attitude in favour of flying the plane.
Also there is an argument for giving numbers 2 by 2. eg cinquante quinze instead of five zero one five. It was put to me that a pilot can only remember a maximum of seven items in short term memory so five zero one five is 4 items whereas cinquante quinze is only 2 of your 7.:)
gallois wrote:
Also there is an argument for giving numbers 2 by 2. eg cinquante quinze instead of five zero one five. It was put to me that a pilot can only remember a maximum of seven items in short term memory so five zero one five is 4 items whereas cinquante quinze is only 2 of your 7.:)
Yes, but with the “peculiar” numbering system used in French, there is usually risk of confusion. The only difference between 6015 pronounced two by two or 75 is just a tiny pause between the two in the first case. That can, and does, lead to issues, I have heard it happen on frequency before.
I think in French more than other languages there is the urgency of a change of rules, going towards the digits being pronounced separately, specifically because of this issue.
Never mind the difference between 4 20 18, 80 18 and 98 :) Since France is in the minority in the European “francophonie” there, maybe they could switch, for radiotelephony, to the way other European French-speaking populations say it? “Nonante-huit”? >;-]
More seriously, all languages have some of this. Like 90 5 and 95 in English or a young person saying “I’m 22” or “I’m 20, too”.
@ Seba I tend to agree with you on fiche par fiche but many disagree.
lionel wrote:
More seriously, all languages have some of this. Like 90 5 and 95 in English or a young person saying “I’m 22” or “I’m 20, too”.
Exactly, but for this very reason in English it has been decided to go with the separate digits.
French just offers even more occasions for misunderstanding so it baffles me that this is not seen as a priority.
gallois wrote:
is that the Flemish?
Excuseer-h me
Better than calling RT with Franglais !
