Bosco: +1
Mooney_Driver wrote:
but I have recently had another report that a flight school had to repatriate an airplane whose pilot was not allowed to continue for the lack of a LP4 in French.
At LFPN Toussus a German pilot was accompanied to LFPT Pontoise by a French instructor on a day ATS at LFPN was closed. It happened right in front of me, so this is an actual first-hand account 
Aviathor wrote:
this is an actual first-hand account
Now the question is do you also have a (first hand) account on whether that person had an ELP?
Tom: a suspicion is a suspicion because it is not well founded. 
Anyway, if you want, you may disregard the word “Swiss” in my statement.
tomjnx wrote:
Now the question is do you also have a (first hand) account on whether that person had an ELP?
It is irrelevant since LFPN is FR only outside ATS hours. But as a law obedient citizen I am sure he is, I will give him the benefit of the doubt and say he probably had an ELP since he ventured outside of Germany. And I spoke English with him.
Aviathor wrote:
It is irrelevant since LFPN is FR only outside ATS hours.
Why is this irrelevant? You need to speak french at LFPN outside ATS hours. And in order to be allowed to do this, you need, according to FCL.055, either an english LP or a LP in the language spoken, i.e. FR.
But FR is required by local regulations.
I suppose that until there is an established jurisprudence we won’t know for sure. You are welcome to challenge this before French authorities if you feel like it.
This is yet another of the grey areas where each and everyone is trying to twist the wording the way that suits them.
Not referring to any posts here but one thing which is often missing in accounts of these problems is whether the person reporting did something to p1ss off the airport official.
Some pilots start off with a smile and that goes a long way. Even I do that sometimes, believe it or not It goes a long way especially in the south.
And if you try to hammer northern European corporate transparency procedures down the throat of some “southern” official, he will just tell you to p1ss off. He is still likely getting used to not getting the bribes he used to get a decade earlier…
The other day I read an account somewhere of something pretty bad, and it was clear that the pilot really didn’t do his homework, landing after airport closing time, etc. He did however get some jobsworth official(s) on top of that.
I think the reason France gets a higher level of criticism sometimes is because it is an unusual case of a “northern” country while being a place where English could easily get you totally nowhere. And I mean northern France, not Corsica.You need to speak french at LFPN outside ATS hours. And in order to be allowed to do this, you need, according to FCL.055, either an english LP or a LP in the language spoken, i.e. FR.
I find that totally mind-boggling
It is unreasonable to interpret Part-FCL as authorising anyone to land at an airport where FR R/T is required as long as they have ELP
But that has already been debated to death on another thread…
Are we running out of topics?
Aviathor wrote:
It is unreasonable to interpret Part-FCL as authorising anyone to land at an airport where FR R/T is required as long as they have ELP
Just want to clarify by adding: but are unable to speak 3 words of French
