I was at Calais the other day, as I very often am, speaking French, as I always do, when an PH reg turned up and started talking English. We were the only two aircraft in the air.
I responded in English, and then went on to give all my calls in both French and English, to maximise safety. A French voice then popped up and said “seulement en Français ici.”
I’m sorry, but my only thought was “what a stupid prick” and continued to do the safe thing.
Some people get so wrapped up in their sense of national pride that they forget that the purpose of R/T is safety.
Incidentally, a Koksilde based Sea King was passing up the coast the other day and he spoke in English despite, presumably speaking French (do all Belgians speak French?)
Oh no, not all Belgians speak French. Another issue of national pride.
Just imagine, for one second, two French pilots in rural England talking French on the radio if they were the only ones in the circuit.
Timothy wrote:
I was at Calais the other day, as I very often am, speaking French, as I always do, when an PH reg turned up and started talking English. We were the only two aircraft in the air.I responded in English, and then went on to give all my calls in both French and English, to maximise safety. A French voice then popped up and said “seulement en Français ici.”
I’m sorry, but my only thought was “what a stupid prick” and continued to do the safe thing.
Some people get so wrapped up in their sense of national pride that they forget that the purpose of R/T is safety.
People can say french hates to obey the law, but what do you call making Radiocalls in english when the law says “French only”.
Let’s be clear : Your comportment was clearly in favor of safety, so that’s not you I’m pointing at.
But the PH registered aircraft who spoke in English (certainly because he did not spoke French) even when the charts says “French only”.
You said you were the only two aircraft in the area. But if it is the case, who was this voice ?
So you can call the “french voice popping up” a “prick”, but I call this PH aircraft a prick.
What if, instead of you, it was a french student pilot, speaking no english at all : he would have been confused, stressed, with this aircraft he did not understand at all.
Timothy wrote:
Some people get so wrapped up in their sense of national pride that they forget that the purpose of R/T is safety.
It’s certainly not seen as a matter of national pride in Eastern Europe, despite the deeply rooted conflicts between neighbouring states here. Sure, not many Hungarian (or Slovakian, Romanian etc) pilots would like English only RT, but it’s not because of national pride, but because of them simply not speaking English.
Also, in this part of Europe, the RT language is determined rather pragmatically:
- controlled airspace/airports: English is preferred, national language acceptable
- uncontrolled airspace/airports: national language is preferred, English is acceptable
All ATC units and all official AFIS units speak both languages. Some A/G radio operators don’t speak English, but they cannot control anyone anyhow. I just don’t see why it would be necessary to mark any airports or airspaces English-only or national language-only.
Just imagine, for one second, two French pilots in rural England talking French on the radio if they were the only ones in the circuit.
Is there a law against that? If not, I may change our Aerodrome info sheet to encourage that, in honour of the auld alliance.
Henceforth, Thursday nights will be Franco-Scottish R/T nights, with a coupe offerte for passengers. 
Just imagine, for one second, two French pilots in rural England talking French on the radio if they were the only ones in the circuit.
Is there a law against that?
I have never come across a language requirement in UK RT but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t one.
However the above scenario suggests air-to-air comms and one isn’t supposed to do that in the UK anyway, in general. A lot of people use 123.45 to coordinate stuff like airborne/formation photography but they avoid using callsigns 
The UK doesn’t AFAIK have a general air-to-air frequency.
All ATC units and all official AFIS units speak both languages
Isn’t ELP a job requirement for all ATC in Europe, everywhere? This is not the same thing as e.g. French ATC declining to speak in English during times when the aerodrome is FR-only, to drive home the point that you should be speaking French; Aviathor reported such a scene a while ago).
“As I said earlier, there is already a law making French speaking on the radio mandatory for French license holders. France (or any other modern country) cannot go any further practically speaking, notwithstanding the fact that French is an “ICAO language” (along with Russian, etc).”
I think the law says the above is true for French pilots ( not for French license holders)
We had a discussion on that but right now I can’t find it.
There is no known definition of a “French pilot”. In general ICAO terms each contracting state has a “hook” on its own “nationals” (meaning citizens i.e. passport holders).
Sure, that law (forcing french to speak french) exists (i’ve seen it myself i think), just like until 2013 there was a law forbidding women to wear trousers (I kid you not).
Focusing on it (without specifying that) is counter informative as in practice no one will apply, and just spreads fear and would have a negative effect on GA.
There are countless examples of it NOT being applied, and I don’t recall a single instance of a direct report of it having caused any issue.
jeff64 wrote:
But the PH registered aircraft who spoke in English (certainly because he did not spoke French) even when the charts says “French only”.You said you were the only two aircraft in the area. But if it is the case, who was this voice ?
So you can call the “french voice popping up” a “prick”, but I call this PH aircraft a prick.
I rather agree that the PH guy should have been speaking French. I am guessing that the third voice was in an aircraft on the ground, either recently arrived or preparing to depart, I actually said “in the air.” But the point is that safety was not being compromised and would have been compromised if the PH could not understand my (French) calls, so the French guy was trying to reduce safety for the sake of rule adherence, one of my pet hates.
