Who decides what language must be used at which airport?

It’s not exactly hard, in a country the size of France, to dig out a person to stick up into the tower who can speak a bit of English.

I know of only one towered airfield in France which if FR only (Albert Bray). But I did not check them all.

The problem would occur outside tower operating hours.

And concerning non-towered airfields, the fact is that most of the GA pilots in France, and in a number of other countries, do not master English R/T. Therefore it is a lot safer for them to use their local languages at the expense of foreign pilots.

I do not think that imposing English upon all private pilots, like what is the case in Norway, would be productive. That would likely be another hurdle to obtain PPL that would hurt recruitment.

Apart from the endorsement, French language skills are obviously required but no endorsement in the license.

That seems to be true for non-commercial license holders.

Article 1 III a at least only talks about “tout titulaire d’une licence professionnelle de pilote d’avions”.

This info leaflet is a bit more ambiguous, IMO.

Didn’t they have a national license that only allowed you to fly in the immediate vicinity of the airfield?

Brevet de Base or something like that?

However, one fairly busy French pilot I know, active in several clubs in the south east, tells me that almost nobody has got it, and same is happening with the LAPL.

But it does appear true that very few French pilots fly more than 50-100nm, let alone outside France. My memory is bad but I recall meeting just one French pilot with his plane outside France.

That’s the one

Hey everyone,

I’m a little late to the party but i read some interesting and funny things.

WRT using english France, it’s pretty simple:

• if the airport is big (international-class airport, and yes there’s a classification) then ATC wil obviously be able to speak EN
• if it’s middle-range I’d expect it to be towered and then usually EN is allowed (i think it’s part of the controller’s training)
• lower middle-range with AFIS (information) only, them you might be restricted to french.
• Then there’s untowered (so obviously not deemed international) which work as described by JoJo:
  – FR ONLY with mandatory radio : well, that says it all
  – FR ONLY but radio optional : shut up and land
  – the rest…

So if you want to fly to a smaller one, check that you can or fly elsewhere.
Someone said it’s mandatory that EN i usable with ATC, and groaning about France. Well, that works in France !
That is… as long as your landing on an airpot in CAS

WRT using FR without an endorsement in France

Guys… anyone thinking that can legally be done without LPR has really missed the point of LPRs…
Otherwise why should we bother getting one in English !!
Someone mentioned Article 1 III a) of a law. Unfortunately the relevant one is 1 III b)

b) Epreuves de compétence linguistique :
Quand les privilèges de la licence sont exercés dans les espaces aériens où l’usage de la langue française est requis, le titulaire d’une licence doit avoir apporté la preuve d’un niveau 4 ou plus en cette langue. Lorsque cette preuve ne résulte pas du dossier du navigant, le titulaire de la licence doit avoir satisfait à une épreuve complémentaire.

in other words, in airspace (please note : does not say “controlled”…) where the use of french is required, you must prove you have a level 4 in that language.

Nothing grey here

As for 1III a) : This is just to allow a PPL holder to fly without a radio… (which means untowered and G airspace)

And no dublinpilot, no one at an untowered airport can allow for an exception to theFR only rule, as no one as the authority to do so …

Cheers !

this FR language endorsement appears to be a myth.

On my (French) licence it says :

Language proficiency:
English VFR level 6
French VFR level 6

How does one add a non-English proficiency endorsement to a UK CAA-issued license?

I am curious whether anyone with a non-French license had French LP added to their license.

I agree with PapaPapa that although I am a native French speaker, and have made some efforts to learn French phraseology, I cannot legally use French for R/T. But since we are among friends, I must admit I do…

The CAA would have to invent a French test, or the DGAC would have to create a test just for foreign pilots.

For the amount of people who would take such an exam, I can’t see it being viable…..