I’m supposed to do something else this morning, but euroga gives me a bad excuse for procrastination…
ARRÊTÉ DU 31/07/1981 relatif aux Brevets, Licences et Qualifications des Navigants Non Professionnels de l’Aéronautique civil
2.7. Privilèges particuliers
2.7.1. Utilisation de la radiotéléphonie
Radiotéléphonie en langue française
Tout détenteur d’un brevet ou d’une licence de membre d’équipage de conduite d’un avion, d’un hélicoptère, d’un planeur ou d’un ballon libre est habilité à assurer, à bord de tout aéronef, les communications radiotéléphoniques en langue française.
Tout détenteur d’un brevet et d’une licence de pilote d’aéronef ultraléger motorisé (ULM) est habilité à assurer, à bord de tout aéronef, les communications radiotéléphoniques en langue française s’il a satisfait à l’épreuve correspondante définie par arrêté. Les pilotes d’ULM qui avaient acquis ce privilège en vertu de dispositions antérieures disposent également de cette habilitation. La mention correspondante sera apposée sur la licence.Italic
It means that if you have a Brevet de base (still available) or a microlight license with radiotelephony privilege, you may speak French on the radio (without an ELP.) if your are a navigant non professionnel.
BUT it seems to me that you have a CPL you do need a French ELP…
Arrêté du 31 juillet 1981 relatif aux brevets, licences et qualifications des navigants professionnels de l’aéronautique civile
2.9.2. Compétences linguistiques des personnels aéronautiques pour les communications radiotéléphoniques
2.9.2.1. Généralités
À la date du 5 mars 2008, tout titulaire d’une licence professionnelle de pilote d’avions ou d’hélicoptères ou candidat à une telle licence doit prouver qu’il est capable de parler et de comprendre la langue utilisée dans les communications radiotéléphoniques, au moins au niveau 4 de l’échelle d’évaluation des compétences linguistiques figurant en appendice 1 au 2.9.2.1 et conformément aux spécifications relatives aux compétences linguistiques y figurant.
2.9.2.2. Épreuves 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 candidat doit avoir satisfait à une épreuve complémentaire.
Quand les privilèges de la licence sont exercés dans les espaces aériens où l’usage de la langue anglaise est requis, le titulaire d’une licence doit avoir fait la preuve au moins d’un niveau 4 en cette langue.
Quand les privilèges des compétences linguistiques sont exercés selon les règles du vol à vue, cette preuve consiste en la réussite aux deux épreuves fixées par l’arrêté du 24 avril 2007 fixant le régime de l’examen d’aptitude linguistique en langue française ou anglaise selon les règles de vol à vue. Cette preuve peut aussi être apportée par la réussite aux deux épreuves orales de l’arrêté du 27 janvier 2000 modifié relatif au régime de l’examen d’aptitude à la langue anglaise pour les navigants de l’aéronautique civile, candidats à la qualification de vol aux instruments.
Quand les privilèges des compétences linguistiques sont exercés selon les règles du vol aux instruments, cette preuve consiste en la réussite aux deux épreuves orales de l’examen fixé par l’arrêté du 27 janvier 2000 modifié relatif au régime de l’examen d’aptitude à la langue anglaise pour les navigants de l’aéronautique civile, candidats à la qualification de vol aux instruments. Les candidats ayant réussi ces épreuves sont classés suivant les modalités fixées en appendice 2 au FCL 1.028 de l’annexe à l’arrêté du 29 mars 1999 modifié relatif aux licences et qualifications de membre d’équipage de conduite d’avions (FCL 1) et au FCL 2.028 de l’annexe à l’arrêté du 12 juillet 2005 modifié relatif aux licences et qualifications de membre d’équipage de conduite d’hélicoptères (FCL 2).
Yet no test relating to French phraseology seems to be required if you are a navigant professionnel.
To be pragmatic, request from the DGAC a letter such as the one I have if you have a CPL.
If you have a PPL, either request the same letter, or get your French UL license, or don’t do anything if you have an EASA PPL, as one could say that even a non French EASA PPL counts as a license within the meaning of the arrêté du 31/07/1981 relatif aux brevets, licences et qualifications des navigants non professionnels
Piotr_Szut wrote:
It means that if you have a Brevet de base (still available) […], you may speak French on the radio (without an ELP.) if your are a navigant non professionnel.
I am the proud holder of a brevet de base. 
And yes, when I fly using this (i.e. on the C152 within 50nm of my home aerodrome), I may speak French in France without LP (F or E). But once I want to use the privileges of my EASA-PPL, PART-FCL requires me to satisfy the LP requirements set forth by EASA. French law doesn’t apply here anymore, it has been superseded by EU law. The same goes for the arrêté about CPL, it doesn’t apply any more because after it was passed, the EU has decided to regulate this issue. It is a fundamental principle of EU law, as has been said here before.
What a UL licence or brevet de base can give you is the right to do R/T (equally well as the corresponding entry in section XII of your PPL), because radiotelephony licences are not regulated by the EU. What it cannot do is to change any of the language proficiency requirements set forth in PART-FCL. Please do try to understand the difference.
But once I want to use the privileges of my EASA-PPL, PART-FCL requires me to satisfy the LP requirements set forth by EASA.
Yes, but please read carefully the FCL 055:“…unless they have a language proficiency endorsement on their licence in either English or the language used for radio communications involved in the flight”
The word either is important here.
You do need to have an LP, but not necessarily a French one. Your licence is valid in France without a French LP if you have an ELP. And nothing in the FCL requires that you have a French LP to speak French on the radio in France. Read again the FCL055 and try to find where it says that you need a French LP in addition to your ELP if you want to speak French
Nothing in EU statute forbids France to set specific conditions for you to speak French on the radio in France.
French statute is still valid for all the matters not regulated by the EU statute, such as the use of local language.
That’s why it’s relevant to wonder whether you may speak French in France on the radio without an ELP.
@Piotr_Szut Beware that ELP means English Language Proficiency. When you write ELP, it means English LP. There is no such thing as French ELP, it’s French LP. Misusing ELP makes things a bit confusing. I appreciate your efforts, just trying to help.
As for your discussion with Rwy20, I think there is a misunderstanding at work. For a large part, you’re both saying the same thing, at least that’s how it appears to me. That is, French UL licence (or Brevet de base) gives me R/T privileges in French, English LP allows me to use EASA PPL in France because it satisfies FCL.055(a) and EASA is not regulating R/T (telecommunications). We can all agree on this. That commercial/ private caveat that you came up with is interesting.
I have participated 3 times in the French Coupe Breitling race where you fly with a team on an aircraft through all of France day and night and have to do 100 touch-and-go or landings within that time. We were the only foreign team in the Coupe Breitling competition which is organized in close collaboration with the French DGAC. Actually they participate as well in a way as there is this school where you are “educated” for a job at the DGAC and they participate as well. Also, the special permissions to land at airforce bases in all of France as well as to do a touch-and-go at Le Bourget and other places like this can all be arranged as chef d’equipe of Team AeroPlus by calling this special contact number of the DGAC. Most of the pilots in our team were Dutch (except 1 instructor from Courchevel). We had in each aircraft a Belgian student-pilot (no license) but that was fluent in speaking French and did have already some experience in RT in French sitting in the right seat.
We are allowed to fly the Coupe Breitling competition and go into any airfield that was French only or restricted for home-based aircraft or whatever. No problem and with full consent of the French DGAC, French Airforce and everyone else.
Then I fly regularly into Courchevel and Lyon-Bron. If the tower is closed at Courchevel, it is formally French only. However, the formal training (in English) provides for procedures to fly in there with the tower closed and for English speaking pilots. Never had a problem with that although sometimes I meet French speaking pilots on the mountain frequency or the Courchevel Tower frequency.
Once I landed at 2 or 3 o’clock at night at Lyon Bron to stay the night there at the Kyriad hotel at the airport. I used the pilot-controlled-lights and called the day before to make sure it would be on and working. I did not say a word of French on the radio when on final to LFLY and the next morning had to explain why I was not speaking French. So, I told them that the next time I would be speaking some words of French announcing I was final for runway xx (piste xx) or that I had vacated the runway. I don’t speak French myself, but my wife does, so she will wisper the words and what to say or I have some French statements on paper if she doesn’t come along. Never had a problem with this afterwards and never a check if the French LP is in my license.
However, I do notice that the French talk a lot on the radio (in French) and thereby frequently block the frequency for quite some time. And I do notice that at busy airfields, the RT becomes confusing with the French speaking French and me speaking English (when there is AFIS) with the tower. In other countries like Israel, Norway or basically anywhere else I remember that once I started to talk English, all other pilots would instantly switch to English as well. In some countries all RT will simply be in English, whatever the local language might be.
For my part, the French can speak French at the local pub, but I think it is not of this age and time anymore that they cannot switch to speak English on the radio when a foreign pilot joins them on the radio. If it works well that way in any other country, it is about time French pilots go to school and learn the basics of English.
I will continue flying into these so called FR only airfields and so far have not had trouble with it as long as I have enough French words or short phrases available on paper or through my wife (or a Belgian girl from a Belgian flightschool during the Coupe Breitling) sitting next to me to say on the radio what I am doing or helping me to say it right and what my intentions are. In andere gevallen zeg ik gewoon “Je ne comprends pas”.
@Piotr_Szut I feel like I am arguing after a “moving target” that you keep shifting with each of my replies. Please state clearly which issue it is that you are writing about (R/T? LP? FR only mandate?), otherwise I fear we will make this subject look rather more complicated than it is. And the last thing we want to do on EuroGA is to spread FUD that would make people insecure about flying abroad.
Piotr_Szut wrote:
Yes, but please read carefully the FCL 055
I think I have done that. And I agree with your interpretation of it – an English LP endorsement is enough to speak french on the radio.
Martin wrote:
That commercial/ private caveat that you came up with is interesting.
Interesting maybe, but irrelevant, because the last national PPL had to be exchanged on April 8, 2013. Since then, the national french licencing law may still exist and someone can dig it out on a forum, but there are no more valid licences to which it can be applied.
Rwy20 wrote:
I think I have done that. And I agree with your interpretation of it – an English LP endorsement is enough to speak french on the radio.
That is absolute nonsense. The only thing ELP allows you to do is to fly into the airspace of a country which language is different from the language of the country of issuance of your license.
AeroPlus wrote:
For my part, the French can speak French at the local pub, but I think it is not of this age and time anymore that they cannot switch to speak English on the radio when a foreign pilot joins them on the radio. If it works well that way in any other country, it is about time French pilots go to school and learn the basics of English.
Ok, this has been written time enough. I now find it offending.
It is a fact that most people in France are unable to speak English, live with it.
Browse a bit here for some interesting statistics (like 41% of french people report not knowing a second language and another 46% reporting they only have a “Fair” knowledge of said second language – Fair being defined in an annexed link)
Actually it is probably not only France. Or if it is, then it probably is because proportionally there are more pilots in France (6 per 10k people) than in other countries where people cannot speak correctly English.
@Piotr_Szut has nailed it in post 114
LP is for license validity and as such regulated by EASA as part of its mandate about Licensing
R/T is national.
I do not know if there is a law in France where it specifically says you should have an LP in French or a French R/T exam to be able to use French “in” the radio, but the laws that were cited earlier look like good candidates…
Rwy20 wrote:
Piotr_Szut I feel like I am arguing after a “moving target” that you keep shifting with each of my replies. Please state clearly which issue it is that you are writing about (R/T? LP? FR only mandate?), otherwise I fear we will make this subject look rather more complicated than it is. And the last thing we want to do on EuroGA is to spread FUD that would make people insecure about flying abroad.Piotr_Szut wrote:
Yes, but please read carefully the FCL 055I think I have done that. And I agree with your interpretation of it – an English LP endorsement is enough to speak french on the radio.
PapaPapa wrote:
Actually it is probably not only France.
Same in Germany, really? We’ve had a discussion on this topic on a German forum and I received a lot of negative feedback for the suggestion that German pilots may want to consider conducting R/T in English only (for the benefit of international travellers). This would apparently drive away from flying those who are only interested in local flying. I brought in the argument that I thought the PPL is a license to learn and I wouldn’t want to consider sitting in an aeroplane commanded by one who either lacks the ability or the motivation to learn a couple of R/T phrases in English, but I don’t think I’ve made a lot of friends with that statement.
PapaPapa wrote:
an English LP endorsement is enough to speak french on the radio.Funny you are actually mixing LP and R/T in your own reply
Very witty. That is actually why I was trying to convey, that we must differentiate if we are talking about LP or R/T. In this case, it was a reply to a statement on LP and FCL.055. I didn’t say that an ELP endorsement is all you need. You also need a plane, electricity, a radio, an antenna and, if required by the state of registry, the corresponding R/T certificate. I thought that this could not be misunderstood when you take into account what I wrote earlier on in this thread. But let me re-phrase my statement for you:
I agree with your interpretation of it – you do not need a French LP endorsement in order to speak french on the radio, if you have an English LP endorsement.
Since some people here seem to want to add to confusion rather than clarify it, I will say: Over and out.
