One advantage of living in the UK is that you very nearly never need to know any of this – because you have to fly to an international airport as the first stop 
What I really would like to see is the receipt for a fine anyone has paid for doing R/T in French without French LP or only English LP in their license. Or a court order, or some other proof of police actions that resulted in fines or impounding the aircraft of whatever action. Please post a link to it, if it exists somewhere.
That’s a really good suggestion. However if the fine is on the spot, there isn’t going to be any documentation. And I would think any fine levied at an airport would be on the spot (and the aircraft secured until it is paid) because they know that once you are out of the country you aren’t going to pay it.
For example the other day I read of a guy who was fined €500 at Megara in Greece for landing there after closing time; I doubt he is going to post a scan of the receipt (the cost at say Shoreham would have been at least that, for an extra 1hr of overtime for everybody).
Peter wrote:
However if the fine is on the spot, there isn’t going to be any documentation.
If you get fined on the spot without a receipt, it’s not a fine, it is corruption.
Peter wrote:
I read of a guy who was fined €500 at Megara in Greece for landing there after closing time; I doubt he is going to post a scan of the receipt
why not?
As far as I understand it Germany does NOT insist on a German LP for the use of their small airports, they do accept the wording of “or” in the FCL55 and do not state that these airports are GE only.
My operational experience backs that up. At the beginning I had one of the worst misinformation experiences possible (ask 10 pilots get 15 opinons, sort of thing). In the end my girlfriend got her German R/T licence and did the radio for me, when went to GE airfields. Recently I have started doing the radio in German a bit and it either goes ok, or if I get confused the worst experience that the Flugleiter takes the piss in a friendly way, we laugh about it, I learn a new word or pronunciation and I go on my merry way.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
your reports will be understood and AFIS will communicate with you in English if necessary. That is how it should be. In France this is not the case.
In most cases, “FR only” applies outside of AFIS/TWR hours of operations – or non-towered airfields. With a few exceptions.
I, as EASA and ICAO as well, would be more than satisfied if finally the French and other countries could agree to allow English as the universal aviation language and stop this nationalist thing of “FR only” airports and other such stuff. And actually, that is what all European countries do other than France. And I feel that is where EASA should put their feet down and stop this practice.
It is not a “nationalist” thing. It is a matter of safety and acknowledges the fact that 90% of the PPL population would not be capable of English R/T. And if you made ELP compulsory, that would erradicate all of light GA in France.
I have passed two FCL.055 exams at the DGAC in France. On the second one (the IFR exam) I was surrounded by professional pilots renewing their ELP, whose carreers depended on obtaining at least LP4, hanging in there by their teeth.
If France wanted to allow English R/T at all airfields, they would also want to introduce a English-proficient “flugleiter” everywhere and prohibit use of the airfield outside of his/her hours.
As for the source: Where in that source does it tell you that you are authorized to use French RT on the basis of an English Language proficiency?
There was aviation before the introduction of FCL.055 and I have not seen a big improvement since FCL.055 was introduced. Maybe controllers see it differently?
I am getting very annoyed if I hear people who are unable to perform proper RT
You mean like China Eastern or Korean Airlines? Or even United/Delta/AA ?
Aviathor wrote:
If France wanted to allow English R/T at all airfields, they would also want to introduce a English-proficient “flugleiter” everywhere and prohibit use of the airfield outside of his/her hours
No, why. We have plenty of airfields here where there is nobody around when you land and depart. Flugleiter is a German thing. The basic point is, what we do in Switzerland is we say radio is ok in local language (and no, Switzerland does not insist on a LP4 in French and or German as long as you have the English one) but everyone is encouraged to speak English. At most airfields I go to which has nobody in attendance often English is the normal procedure.
Aviathor wrote:
It is not a “nationalist” thing. It is a matter of safety and acknowledges the fact that 90% of the PPL population would not be capable of English R/T. And if you made ELP compulsory, that would erradicate all of light GA in France.
Well. That argument was done to death in Switzerland as well and indeed there are some folks who stopped flying or who do now only fly to uncontrolled airfields without radio. I would say 99% of the Swiss PPL population have the English language LP now. Yes, there was a lot of howling and a few abused theeth, but eventually it got done and the quality of ATC has indeed gone up for most parts.
Apart: All France would have to do is to stop insisting that everyone who wants to fly to FR only airfields needs that French LP.
Aviathor wrote:
You mean like China Eastern or Korean Airlines? Or even United/Delta/AA ?
There used to be a few airlines who caused rised eyebrows a lot too. I remember listening to a Transaero 747 at JFK who blocked a whole taxiway for a few minutes (the main taxiway off the landing runway) with their non understanding of that taxi clearance. Here in ZRH I can’t recall any airlines who recently have caught my attention. It appears that the Language Proficiency training most have received has indeed done some good.
It is not a “nationalist” thing. It is a matter of safety and acknowledges the fact that 90% of the PPL population would not be capable of English R/T.
Does that mean that during AFIS hours in France, when you can “officially” do RT in English, the AFIS will translate your position reports to those only FR speaking pilots ?
No, he/she won’t.
Do they then separate incoming VFR traffic ? No, they are not allowed. Do they issue traffic information ? Seldom. They rely upon us seeing each other.
So is there a safety gain during AFIS hours – I don’t think so.
Right. The only benefit of showing up during AFIS hours is that maybe the AFIS person can provide information in English. And if not, nothing has changed.
Has anyone been to Colmar LFGA lately?
They still show a note on their website about mandatory flight plan for VFR and IFR as well as mandatory customs even for intra-Schengen arrivals. I did sent them an email and hope for an answer tomorrow but maybe someone can tell from recent experience how the customs thing is handled.
I plan for a late arrival at night at the moment so that I can arrive at my final destination early the next day.
Been there last month.
Coming from France.
Not really cheap at night (around 100€) landing fee light and STAPS (automatic weather system).
Filed flight plan due to NOTAM
Stephan,
Did you get any response to your email?
I may go there next week from another Schengen country but during opening hours. Wondering what to do. I guess that if I file a flight plan that would trigger the customs people to inspect me if they like and I don’t need to do anything.
