My licence does mention French proficiency but they only gave me level 4 (therefore with an expiration date) by default for the only reason that I am not French, even though I could easily get level 6 if tested.
I got same FLP4 after my transfer CAA to DGAC, they removed it after I challenged by sending a copy of an old DGAC Brevet de Base licence and copy of a French education diploma, now I have FLP6 (VFR & IFR) on my licence
As far as I understand, you only need 1 out of 2, ELP OR FLP, to talk French in “FR-only”, anyone who has been through this process of LP can quote chapters on that OR , to talk English you need ELP (IFR & VFR) !
If you have XLP buy a ULM 
But I am surprised if you have done PPL in France, didn’t the radio & skill-test examiners sign FLP6 for PPL?
The simple reason is that 90% of French club pilots who make up the vast majority of movements at FR only airfields don’t speak a word of English and by far the majority don’t want to.
you need to actually be able to speak some sort of adequate French to actually fly to an FR-only airfield. See here for why.
Yes sometimes clearances are in French when no “English ATS” is around, usually at small AFIS airfields, crossing military ATC zones, or after ATS AD hours…
I am thinking on the case of “VFR flying” in empty circuits where “one pager” does work
On post you mentioned, I doubt that many non-based people know the procedure to call Villa before non-controlled IFR departure from Toussus (it’s not documented anywhere), most people will just call Orly ATC by phone to get an IFR clearance or just depart VFR and ask Paris FIS…
The point is that the controller (in the link) carefully made the point there that a non FR speaker, sitting on the tarmac, will not be going anywhere. Do you feel lucky?
Toussus now is “based only” when without ATS, the military ATC nearby will ask if you speak French and if you are based if you dare to call them by phone before startup
Ibra wrote:
But I am surprised if you have done PPL in France, didn’t the radio & skill-test examiners sign FLP6 for PPL?
Not sure who the “radio & skill-test examiners” would be in this case. The people signing my theoretical and practical exam cannot judge my language proficiency, there is literally no section for it in the grading grid.
The FCL.055 people can only judge my English (even though they are French).
As far as I understand, you only need 1 out of 2, ELP OR FLP, to talk French in “FR-only”, anyone who has been through this process of LP can quote chapters on that OR , to talk English you need ELP (IFR & VFR) !
Yes, that’s what I thought too, hence why I am not too concerned about the limited life of my FLP, though I am curious to know what the DGAC think I should do once my FLP expires.
In the days of the TT the examiner for your flight test would stamp in your new licence the words “Ability to use radiotelephonie in langue française” if you did your flight test in French.
When ELP and all that nonsense came about France decided it wanted to have FLP stamped in the licence also. However, you had to prove you spoke French to at least level 4 and the radiotelephonie stamp was not enough proof of this. It was pretty quickly decided that if you were to swear on your honour that French was your maternal language then you immediately got a level 6 entry into your licence.
Later on any non maternal French speaker, if taking a PPL course in France and in French (at least in a club) when your licence came back it had typed inside proficiency in the French language level 6 VFR. If you went on to take an IFR course in French and passed your new licence carrying your IFR qualification would then come back with another typed paragraph saying proficiency in the French language level 6 IFR. Most pilots I know who were trained in France whether their mother tongue is French or not have this in their French EASA licence.
It is often asked where can you go to take a FLP exam. The nearest I got to a response from the DGAC on behalf of a friend was a “I think you can do it in Toulouse”.
The fact that you could only get ELP to level 6 at the DGAC in Orly at the time and they were pretty harsh, to say the least, at IFR level, this state of affairs led to many bizarre situations. For instance I know of at least one American and 2 English pilots (one with an ex English professor from Oxford) with DGAC licences following training in France and level 6 French but only level 5 English stamped in their licence. Thankfully things have changed for the better on the ELP front with a much more sensible approach. But things have obviously returned to a nonsense approach to the FLP.
gallois wrote:
Later on any non maternal French speaker, if taking a PPL course in France and in French (at least in a club) when your licence came back it had typed inside proficiency in the French language level 6 VFR
Yes, well this clearly has changed
I am curious to know what the DGAC think I should do once my FLP expires.
You get FLP6, welcome to France !
Let us know how it goes 
