The thread about “Omitting Wilco” inspired me to ask the wider EuroGA community: Do you use informal language/dialect in R/T? If so, when/where?
Having learned to fly in East Frisia, I was exposed to East Frisian R/T which basically consists of variations of jo (yes) , moin (hello) and occasionally is klar (affirmative).
Landing at EDWF as a based pilot you might, after your opening call and stating landing intentions, get a reply consisting only of “jo, 26” which shall convey to you the information that you can land on runway 26 (obviously we are talking about an AFIS, not ATC field here, or more specifically one with a Flugleiter)
As a student pilot I felt right at home with this informal way of R/T and it never stopped me from using correct phraseology when flying elsewhere (other East Frisian airfields except Emden EDWE also have a tendency for friendly/informal radio talk). Obviously one has to be careful with “foreign” aircraft in the circuit but that never seemed to be a problem.
Friendly RT and even some jokes in an non busy environment make flying more enjoyable. It’s mostly the reason I always speak the local language when I can
EDLS Stadtlohn, also near the Dutch border but 150 km south of EDWF, is also quite informal (or at least it was when I visited it).
Many Czech aerodromes are, too, especially when everyone in the air is locally based. The most informal piece of R/T I hear (and use) from time to time is just a “click click” with the transmit button in lieu of “Roger”.
Time and place, and feeling comfortable with AT.
Just as I will throw in Good morning talking to London I will use local language to say hello and goodbye in France and Germany. But I would never give or accept instructions in a language other than English as I am not proficient enough.
I think it’s a really good point. In principle I always try to be formal, concise and procedural as anything else is wasting valuable radiowaves, particularly when it’s busy.
And don’t use colloquial language where standard phraseology is available! Too many times I’ve heard the need to reexplain “say again” when someone thought it was wise to say in a colloquial manner what simply could have been said with “Roger”, “Wilco”.
At other times when the frequency is quiet, you can throw in a little fun here or there. But if you need to say more than a few sentences, go to a dedicated frequency i.e. ‘PH-ABC go numbers’ (123.45 MHz) or ‘go company’ if you’re commercial talking to a collegue.
A related question, only applicable to non-native English speakers, would be whether you use English or your native language when flying to ATC controlled airports in your home country.
For example, AFAIK all major German airports allow both DE/EN to be used for R/T. I guess most German/Austrian/Swiss IFR pilots on here will stick to English even when approaching VFR because they are used to it anyways. Among the VFR pilots I guess variations will be greater.
Average German pilots are often afraid of R/T at the big airports even in German , because they are often used to their local small airfield informalities as described above and not current on exact phraseology.
After PPL I’d speak in english, as wasn’t used of RT in my native languages (French/Portuguese). These days, mostly for the reason in my previous post, I do it it normal language.
Sometimes ATC forgets I speak native (or maybe I have a bad accent, or it’s the fact that I mostly fly G/N reg), and then I reply in english, as I also have to assume the fact that they might be doing so for situational awareness of someone else on frequency.
It is fairly common to use informal language here in the UK but normally with ATC there is no need for anything but standard aviation phrases. This is because ATC competence is generally high – as good as the best anywhere in Europe – and they use standard phrases even for familiar/local traffic. Come to Shoreham for example and you will see how it is done. At A/G or AFIS airfields (the two levels of “control” below ATC) it is often a lot more slack and there are places where strange stuff goes on….
But since most UK ATCOs are native English, informal language can also be used. It just makes you look sloppy 
I know of one non-native one and I discovered you really cannot use nonstandard phrases then.
As regarding dialects, I am not aware of UK dialects which are totally incomprehensible to others in the UK. A Scottish or Welsh accent can be hard to make out to a southerner but you tend to not get the really strong accents in ATC. Maybe this is different within others countries in Europe?
If you want to see poor use of informal English, fly in N France and listen out for some of the Brits flying there. “G-XXXX we are just following the coast from [illegible village name] to [illegible village name] and will be thinking about doing some sightseeing around [illegible] and then might think about what next”… then you get a story about it being a bit too windy so they might have to divert etc The French ATCO clearly missed most of it so his best plan is to ask them to squawk something, which is ok until they say “sorry no transponder” It can be painful to listen to.
Peter wrote:
I am not aware of UK dialects which are totally incomprehensible to others in the UK
You’ve not been to Liverpool or Northern Ireland much then :-)
