I would find it strange if pilots who may speak a few words of French phraseology, but would be otherwise hard pressed to understand or reply to a call from another station, could legally use French for R/T in France.
Exactly…. for all the debate on this topic, I would consider myself nuts to try to fly to a busy French-only airfield, just with some phrases like “downwind” memorised but zero language understanding. Yet that is often taught in the UK to people who want to fly to French-only airfields.
Imagine a French version of Shoreham on a sunny Sunday, and trying to get in there without understanding what’s going on 
You would be OK flying the circuit 500ft above the published level 
but then you would conflict with somebody on final, and that somebody might call “final” at 1/2 mile or at 3 miles. Often I have to ask for a position report, and that really does need the language.
How many French-only airfields are as busy as Shoreham on a sunny Sunday, I have no idea, however. I have never seen a French airport with significant traffic, but then I have almost never been to the small ones, and have never been to an FR-only one.
If there is nothing happening, that’s safe enough – the legality is another thing and I don’t understand the arguments here (have no need to know).
Sure. But we gave been talking about legalities here, not practicalities.
Now, Aviathor, if you can dig out a French version of that one, I will be able to put a face to the voice of the guy who records the English language bit of the La Rochelle ATIS
I just called the ATIS by phone for kicks – the recording was made by a woman and the English portion was not bad…
I would consider myself nuts to try to fly to a busy French-only airfield, just with some phrases like “downwind” memorised but zero language understanding. Yet that is often taught in the UK to people who want to fly to French-only airfields. Quote
Of course, but if you fly to a place where radio is not mandatory, where you don’t ear anyone on the A/A frequency, I think it’s a good idea to say your intentions
Imagine a French version of Shoreham on a sunny Sunday, and trying to get in there without understanding what’s going on
If ever you are near on a sunny weekend, visit EBBY Baisy-Thy. At least five planes performing touch&go’s in an extremely tight circuit, and no R/T at all. Most are “mid-performance” FK9’s but the occasional trike or VL3/CT adds salt to the dish. Yet the last accident we heard from there was when someone on take-off hit a pigeon and the pigeon happened to be a prize-winner so the insurance guys popped in. Otherwise, not a problem at all. But then, of course, these are only microlight pilots, they can’t be expected to understand the real problems of real-world real pilots.
How many French-only airfields are as busy as Shoreham on a sunny Sunday, I have no idea, however. I have never seen a French airport with significant traffic, but then I have almost never been to the small ones, and have never been to an FR-only one.
Say a nice Sunday in August: La Rochelle will be normally busy; Rochefort, nice airport, long runway, 5mn flight south, will be desperately empty, there is no café, the gliding club won’t fly because the grass strip has been destroyed by the wild boars, the military don’t fly from Cognac on Sunday; 10mn flight south again Royan will be as busy as Shoreham: Parachute, Banner Towing, visitors from Paris or elsewhere for the day or the WE, local flying club, local helicopter school, sometimes a bizjet or a TBM850, and a café-restaurant where you can have a drink in the shade while watching the airfield.
the recording was made by a woman
In today’s politically correct world, mind your P’s and Q’s – and better make that " the recording was in a female-like voice" or some such
In today’s politically correct world, mind your P’s and Q’s – and better make that " the recording was in a female-like voice" or some such
This was written by a man.
