I fly regularly into airfields in France which are French only: Lyon-Bron (outside AFIS hours), Albertville (I have a formal permit to land there, but no French LP on my license), Courchevel and several other mountain airfields (where Courchevel is A/A when there is nobody in the tower.
I have had one instance some years ago where I landed at 2 at night at Lyon-Bron while using the pilot controlled lights. Up to final I was in contact with the controller of Lyon Exupery and talking in English and on final I had to switch to the tower frequency of Lyon-Bron to turn on the lights and to announce myself on final (A/A) even though I would not expect anyone there. Also, the controller of Exupery was still standing by to close my flightplan once on short final / ground.
The next morning I came to pay my landing fee and they complained that I spoke English on the radio. I told them I would not do that anymore. Nobody asked for my French LP in my license. After that, when I request the PCL/STAP proceudure to be on for landing at night at e.g. Lyon-Bron, I double check it is turned on (they sometimes turn it off at some airfields) and then I write them in English that I will speak French on the radio. My French is no not better than 3-5 words (even though my wife in the aircraft studied and speaks French). I have never had trouble and I continue to fly into FR-only airfields. I do announce in French where I am (downwind, base or final and for which runway, but that is about it. I would not be able to speak any French and if another pilot starts speaking French to me I would tell him "Je ne parle pas français’ and repeat that I was “finale piste xx.”
So, I can’t figure out the exact law, but love flying in France and love going into FR-only airfields at times. For me it is not a reason not to go anymore to France only because it is unclear or not allowed. I don’t want to live out of fear for a fine or something else, but try to approach it from a practical point of view.
Then during lunch time: quite a few airports would be unstaffed (the tower), so all you do is fly and self announce (in English). Not a problem.
The French in general have no problem with me coming in to FR-only airfields even when flying there at night. They just turn on the STAP/PCL system and let me fly in. It has (other than that once instance at Lyon-Bron) never been a problem.
Peter wrote:
To me it forces French pilots to use French even when they can use English.
That is exactly the case. This regulation is fairly well-known to French pilots as well.
In my case, the question is if with a French PPL but without a French passport, I qualify as “pilote français”. For IFR, I don’t know the phraseology in French, since I did my IR abroad, so I would be quite embarrassed if I had to do R/T in French. But I never lost a lot of sleep about the issue (except right now ;)).
I find this utterly and totally incredible!
It means that an Air France pilot flying into Charles de Gaulle, from New York, is required to speak French!
With the blindingly obvious loss of situational awareness to almost everybody else.
Everybody knows it happens, and it has been cited in countless accidents, and it is understandable, but I never knew it was required by law.
What is the rationale behind this law? It is a national language preservation issue?
It also has interesting consequences elsewhere. For example it strongly discourages French pilots training abroad, especially in the USA, because they will be learning “useless” procedure phraseology. It just happens to be a great business maintenance practice for the French training establishment (ENAC?).
Tout détenteur d’une licence de membre d’équipage, habilité à assurer les fonctions d’opérateur de stations radioélectriques d’émission du service mobile aéronautique ou du service mobile aéronautique par satellite, doit être capable de s’exprimer dans la ou les langues spécifiées par les organismes du contrôle de la circulation aérienne sans difficulté de nature à gêner les communications radio.
Rightly or wrongly I read this as meaning that to be allowed to communicate in French on the radio, you have to speak French well enough to communicate in French on the radio, so presumably the test isn’t down to whether or not you have a certificate, but whether you get by?
One one hand this seems eminently pragmatic but I’m not sure I find it reassuring in that 1) if there is any ambiguity in communication then presumably you could be open to prosecution, even if your French is generally very good and 2) the last time I did a go-around in earnest, I couldn’t remember in the heat of the moment what they were called.
@Aeroplus – it has worked for me too, but that doesn’t mean it’s legal. The degree of transparency in governmental procedures reduces as one goes further south so getting away with something doesn’t necessarily provide a good data point for others doing it 
Also if a flight was to become illegal even before departure (which in this case it would be) your insurance is void. That is the second and usually more important aspect of trying to be legal in aviation.
@Peter – I understand your point fully. I just for myself don’t want to be primarily guided by fear of being punished, fined, uninsured and thus not covered or whatever for possibly doing something that is just barely or maybe just not 100% legal like e.g. here and there departing a little bit overweight on long flights over the sea with not many alternates enroute and feeling better leaving overweight than 100% legal or flying into FR-only airfields for which I might need a FR LP in my license, but which is debated so much that I don’t know it anymore. And it won’t even pop in my mind to stop flying to France due to these uncertainties. :-) And I sleep well.
AeroPlus wrote:
I fly regularly into airfields in France which are French only: Lyon-Bron (outside AFIS hours), Albertville (I have a formal permit to land there, but no French LP on my license)
I have not found any requirement to have demonstrated French proficiency to use French R/T unlike the requirement to have demonstrated proficiency in English to use English under IFR.
Rwy20 wrote:
In my case, the question is if with a French PPL but without a French passport, I qualify as “pilote français”. For IFR, I don’t know the phraseology in French, since I did my IR abroad, so I would be quite embarrassed if I had to do R/T in French. But I never lost a lot of sleep about the issue (except right now ;)).
If you have a French license, then at least you have French LP6 just like I have Norwegian LP6 although I have never ever used Norwegian R/T and would not be able to even at gunpoint, except for up-/cross-/downwind and final.
I am in a similar situation with two passports and a foreign PPL, having obtained my license in Norway, my IR in the US. I now use French VFR, or when I fly with an instructor/examiner not proficient or comfortable in English, and English otherwise.
As demonstrated by AeroPlus, this is probably nothing to loose sleep over. I have not been able to find a single report of any action taken against a pilot for his lack of mastery of French! Foreign pilots landing at FR-only airfields is probably not much of a problem just because they are rare, and for that reason I do not think there will be any enforcement, except maybe if Gendarmerie de l’Air or PAF just happens to be in the vicinity at that exact moment.
If there is any ambiguity in communication then presumably you could be open to prosecution, even if your French is generally very good
Sure, but that is always true, no matter what language you use.
@Aviathor: thanks for digging out the important bit of regulation.
Tout détenteur d’une licence de membre d’équipage, habilité à assurer les fonctions d’opérateur de stations radioélectriques d’émission du service mobile aéronautique ou du service mobile aéronautique par satellite, doit être capable de s’exprimer dans la ou les langues spécifiées par les organismes du contrôle de la circulation aérienne sans difficulté de nature à gêner les communications radio.
boscomantico wrote:
Sure, but that is always true, no matter what language you use.
Not necessarily: specifying e.g. level 4 would imply that if you failed to understand idiomatic French the fault was not with you. I agree getting pulled up on such a thing seems unlikely; I just have visions – however unlikely – of officials having a bad day and using it as a hammer to beat you with.
kwlf wrote:
Not necessarily: specifying e.g. level 4 would imply that if you failed to understand idiomatic French the fault was not with you.
The regulation says that you have to be capable of communicating. It doesn’t say that you must make no mistakes. And it is in force for at least 25 years now, and I don’t now of any prosecutions of people who tried, but didn’t understand something. So this whole language issue is completely blown out of proportion out of fear or out of political interest of some people who dream of forcing the whole of France to speak English on every single aerodrome (ain’t gonna happen).
