Switzerland makes English mandatory for aviation (some airports), and French etc language proficiency

I think Peter’s summary of the rules is very clear.

I would perhaps add

• to fly to “FR only” airports where use of radio is mandatory you need to use French
• to fly to “FR only” airports where use of radio is not mandatory you can fly without using the radio

While I think that using the radio anyway, either in broken French or English, would be better for safety, the bureaucrats will disagree.

Peter wrote:

Whether it has been possible to get a “FR endorsement” or “DE endorsement” is subject to varying opinions and reports over the years. This post from @bordeaux_jim is contrary to what most think, for example. Reading that thread you can see it is complicated if you really want to work out the situation.

The only way to have French language on your licence is if your licence is/was french issued. I have just had my licence transferred from the UK to France as insurance against Brexit. I couldnt have any form of french language proficiency added at the same time, despite doing the whole process in French meaning that I obviously speak pretty reasonable french…

Regards, SD..

Vladimir wrote:

ATS is not available after 4pm or so. If you are there in the evening and don’t have French radiotelephony in your license, you are not legal.

I think this has been done to death. You might need to speak french (I do), but don’t (at least in practice, and no one ever showed any theoretical requirement, that I know of) need to have and endorsement on your licence.
I’ve been asked a couple times to check if we spoke french (e.g. Arriving into Toussus LFPN at night after hours, flying with non-french speaking pilots so was doing all radio in english so that they could understand), and a reply in french was enough to reassure ATC.

Just a note for the late arrival at Tossus in English, same ATC did point out it to me it French only after hours, while chatting with him on the ground it turns out he was more concened that we will not able to find our way out of LFPN after late hours than “policing the FR only ELP signoff” on the licence

In any case “FR only” is a dumb rule but probably better than closing the whole lot to non-based aircrafts if english AFIS is not around?

skydriller wrote:

This comes up regularly on forums. I have been living and flying in France for around 15 years. Never ever heard that I need to have a french qualification in my licence to fly to a “Fr only” aerodrome from any french Instructor, Examiner or pilot. The reason for this is that there is no way to get such a qualification!!

That’s not true. You can get both RTE and LPC in French and German here in Switzerland. Here is a document showing the exam dates for English, French, German and Italian at FOCA: http://www.aero-club.ch/media/07_Formulaires_theorie_et_pratique_et_dates/Dates_des_examens_Radiotelephonie_(RTF)-2019.pdf

skydriller wrote:

The reason for this is that there is no way to get such a qualification!!

We can get it in Switzerland easy enough. After the French started to harass Swiss pilots in the early days of the LP saga, the Swiss FOCA reacted fairly quickly and offered exams for both French and German. I also know from people who fly there that in France there obviously are courses in flight schools which teach French RT and that you can also take the French LP while doing the French RT exam.

What makes the whole thing even more stupid is that the actual RT and LP exams are technically different things even though I understand they are taught and examined together these days.

I was unaware of the Swiss rules/licencing wrt LP for different languages. This is one reason I like this forum, you learn things!!

Mooney_Driver wrote:

I also know from people who fly there that in France there obviously are courses in flight schools which teach French RT and that you can also take the French LP while doing the French RT exam. What makes the whole thing even more stupid is that the actual RT and LP exams are technically different things even though I understand they are taught and examined together these days.

Is this for initial licence issue? Or is that to get French LP on an existing EASA-PPL? Right now I have a french EASA-PPL with English Level 6 on it…Until I am officially told I need french LP on my licence to fly into FR only aerodromes, I will just let sleeping dogs lie…

Regards, SD..

skydriller wrote:

Right now I have a french EASA-PPL with English Level 6 on it

On your license, if it says int hte remarks section (XIII) : “Compétances linguistiques (Language Proeficiency) Français niveau 6 (French level 6) Anglais niveau 6 (English level 6)” then you have both French and English, but if the French part is not there, then you don’t have the French LP (it is explicitly mentioned).