Yes exactly. English remains the standard language in this game, too.
Not for long, it seems 
But seriously, here’s a modest proposal for EuroGA to burnish its European image: now that English is no longer the official first language of any EU member state, shouldn’t we show loyalty to the Project by switching the language of this forum to French?
But surely we could go further than that: let’s lobby for the language of Voltaire to be the new lingua franca of European GA!
Or perhaps, in the spirit of linguistic diversity enshrined in the EU treaties, the language of European GA should change every six months with the Presidency? This could have a huge benefit of creating a new corps of high-quality jobs (with thirteen year holidays) for Maltese and Gaelic speaking functionaries to direct air traffic in our star-bedecked blue Union skies.
Being pedantic, I didn’t think English was ever the “official” first language of any member state anyway: the UK doesn’t have a declared “official language”, it just has a de-facto standard of using English and nothing set in law making it an “official first language” (although I could be wrong).
(The Irish “official first language” is of course Gaelic, even though only 35% of the population can speak it).
French was in fact the language of both the English and the Russian upper classes for many years. Admittedly it was a few centuries ago.
But IIUC Norman French is still used at either the opening of a UK Parliament or the Queen’s speech. I always found it very amusing listening to a parliamentary clerk from Cornwall or Newcastle repeating what the Queen had just said in Norman French. But then sometimes the dialect or accent of another part of France can be difficult to understand to a native of another region. The language in my area used to be OC a thousand years ago so why not go the whole hog @Jacko
Clearly English will continue to be used in the EU, after all, a German, Spanish person, French person, and Italian who are working in a big EU institution are all quite likely to all have learned English, but perhaps the German didn’t learn Spanish and the Italian didn’t learn French.
Perhaps they should specify that the common language be Esperanto, so as not to offend anyone!
Peter wrote:
However one bizjet pilot has just told me that if you have an ICAO ATPL you “just” need to sit the 14 exams plus a simcheck to get an EASA ATPL. No need for doing the residential course. But if you have just an ICAO CPL/IR then you need to do the residential course. I would imagine there would be some reference to this in the EASA regs. This guy (FAA ATP) has spent years working out how to avoid the 14 exams… now he flies for an IOM Operator and that avoids the requirement for EASA papers completely.
Nightmare.
I have looked at ICAO to EASA conversion or validation routes, they all seem to require way more hours than I hold.
Once I finish my training, I will be a UK CPL/IR with just over 200 hours. I am trying to digest the idea that this will essentially be worthless. Money, time and effort thrown down the bin.
Why worthless? You can work for any inra-UK airline (they ~all fly G-regs) and you can work for Easyjet, Virgin, and whoever else flies G-regs. According to one of their pilots I know, Easyjet continue to fly G-regs on routes which have one end in the UK, which is most of their flights, and those pilots didn’t move their papers to Austria either.
Peter wrote:
Why worthless? You can work for any inra-UK airline (they ~all fly G-regs) and you can work for Easyjet, Virgin, and whoever else flies G-regs. According to one of their pilots I know, Easyjet continue to fly G-regs on routes which have one end in the UK, which is most of their flights, and those pilots didn’t move their papers to Austria either.
Worthless is an exageration but I was planning to move to Europe later this year for work (as an aircraft designer).
Also, as a Spaniard, I don’t see myself living in the UK for the long term. I have a life outside Britain and I only came to this country for studies initially. If this whole issue means I can only fly in the UK (or G-regs, essentially the same), I will feel “imprisoned” in this country, if it makes sense.
Peter wrote:
whoever else flies G-regs.
Aisde from Easyjet & BA, who are the other UK airlines that still fly intra-Europe on G-regs? Jet2com maybe?
- Norwegian UK & Virgin UK seems US oriented
- FlyBe & Monarch, went bust
The rest, not much spotted in PlaneSpotters DataBase…
Alpha_Floor wrote:
Once I finish my training, I will be a UK CPL/IR…
It ought to be possible to apply for an EASA licence because the training course will have been continuously conducted by an EASA ATO. The skill test will obviously need to be administered by an EASA examiner. The state issuing the licence will need to disregard the guidance provided by EASA in November (see post 66 of this thread):
“After [1st Jan 2021] the recommendations for the theoretical and/or
flight examination made by UK approved training organisations (ATOs)
and declared training organisations (DTOs) as well as theoretical
knowledge examination certificates issued by UK CAA become invalid in
the EU27 Member States."
The fact that Regulation (EU) 2019/494 never entered into force because a withdrawal agreement was concluded should not diminish the point observed in the preamble:
“In the Union’s aviation safety system, the training of pilots and
mechanics is tightly regulated and training modules are harmonised.
Persons taking part in a training module in one Member State cannot
always change, in the course of that training, to another Member
State. That particular situation should be taken into account in the
Union contingency measures."
Qalupalik wrote:
It ought to be possible to apply for an EASA licence because the training course will have been continuously conducted by an EASA ATO. The skill test will obviously need to be administered by an EASA examiner. The state issuing the licence will need to disregard the guidance provided by EASA in November (see post 66 of this thread):
Thanks so much.
What about the ATPL theory exams, would I be able to use them in that case? I sat them with the UK CAA while in EASA. The fact that they have become non-EASA retroactively just baffles me so much.
