Peter wrote:
The Ofcom thing is a radio license, for a G-reg aircraft.
Important distinction, please correct me if I am wrong:
The CAA FRTOL is a personal radio license / radio proficiency certificate.
I don’t know if OFCOM has its fingers in it. It is issued by the CAA and AFAIK you get it when your PPL papers come through.
Nothing to do with speaking English; the test is based on standard phrases entirely. Although you won’t get very far if you can’t speak English…
There is a debate, running as long as the internet itself, whether it is valid only in an aircraft, or valid for using a handheld radio anywhere. Nobody actually gives a **** 
To be precise, UK CAA issues PPL/CPL licenses which include Operator priveleges as delegated to UK CAA by Ofcom.
If you are using radio in gliders you get standalone FRTOL to talk to frequencies that are not exempt: UK gliding FCL is not regulated by CAA: no CAA licence and no CAA medical, people fly on BGA papers with DVLA medical, the only thing that is regulated is glider radio station and the pilot use of that radio by Ofcom (you have to get standalone FRTOL as glider pilot plus the glider radio station, this has an annual fee)
The same thing in France with ULM, to fly internationally you get standalone CEPT/RT paper unless you hold PPL with RT embedded
Important distinction, please correct me if I am wrong: The Ofcom license is for aircraft as far as I understood The BZF/AZF are R/T licenses for pilots (the Bundesnetzagentur also issues the equivalent to the FRTOL for pilots but this is not what this topic is about)
I don’t think standalone (separate paper) vs embded (extra line on PPL) make much difference here?
Anyway, anyone flying N-reg will have two FCC papers one for aircraft and one for the pilot both issued by FCC, the US FCC acts like German Bundesnetzagentur in this regard (nothing to do with FAA/LBA at all)
Airborne_Again wrote:
But the interesting thing is that if the text of the FlugfunkV §14 is to be taken ad notam, then pilots in international CAT will have to check with the Bundesnetzagentur before flying to or over Germany that their particular radio licenses are recognised. Somehow I don’t think that’s what actually happens.
International CAT mainly flies IFR; for IFR, you will typically be talking english when flying over Germany…. The law itself offers a “way out” by stating – more or less – that radio licences which weren’t issued under FlugFunkV §14 can be recognised if they are restricted to use of the English Language….
*this excludes pilots from EU nations whose radio licences will be generally recognised without need for validation.
Steve6443 wrote:
that radio licences which weren’t issued under FlugFunkV §14 can be recognised if they are restricted to use of the English Language….
That was exactly my point. Would pilots from a US carrier (say) flying to Germany really ask the Bundesnetzagentur to recognise their radio licenses!?
Airborne_Again wrote:
That was exactly my point. Would pilots from a US carrier (say) flying to Germany really ask the Bundesnetzagentur to recognise their radio licenses!?
Why would they? The law says that you don’t need to if you are restricted to using the radio in english and that’s the only language in use for IFR in Germany…. Or would Delta fly VFR to Europe, in which case a bilingual pilot could elect to use German…..
Steve6443 wrote:
Why would they? The law says that you don’t need to if you are restricted to using the radio in english and that’s the only language in use for IFR in Germany….
That’s not what Patrick’s quote above says. It says “können anerkannt werden”, not “werden anerkannt”. You yourself wrote “can be recognised”, not “are recognised”. So unless there is some additional piece of legislation the pilots would still have to check.
Airborne_Again wrote:
That’s not what Patrick’s quote above says. It says “können anerkannt werden”, not “werden anerkannt”. You yourself wrote “can be recognised”, not “are recognised”. So unless there is some additional piece of legislation the pilots would still have to check.
If I look at FlugFunkV §14 (1), I see the following:
Die allgemeine Anerkennung kann mit der Maßgabe erfolgen, dass die Inhaber von gültigen Flugfunkzeugnissen, die nicht im Geltungsbereich dieser Verordnung erteilt worden sind, nur zur Ausübung des Flugfunkdienstes in englischer Sprache berechtigt sind. Die Anerkennung kann formlos erfolgen.
“The general recognition can be granted with the proviso that the holders of valid aeronautical radio certificates that have not been issued within the scope of this regulation are only entitled to exercise the aeronautical radio service in English. The recognition can be informal.”
The way I read this is that there is a general recognition for holders of radio certificates without any formal recognition required if they limit themselves to using english language thus, following from this, there is no need for an American Airlines pilot flying to Frankfurt to have his radio certificate approved.
