Hi,
6 months ago I joined a flight club (not a school) in South Germany, Ive done some of the theory already (BZF, Meteo, technik and Law, all in German) and a few flight hours.
I do speak German (B2 level) but I was wondering if there’s an equivalent book that I can read in English to make sure Im understanding 100% of what is being explained. I failed BZF II because I misunderstood the textbook. I have bought a few used books (https://www.amazon.de/EASA-PPL-Syllabus-Course-Guide/dp/190655935X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506516475&sr=8-1&keywords=ppl+course) but these are following the UK’s training requirements and no one in Germany has been able to explain to me what is the difference between the methods UK – German and the program requirements (of either PPL or LAPL)
I feel Im lost with what procedures I have to do, all the information is in a very technical German and I can’t seem to find anyone who clearly explains what needs to be done (though at this point Im pretty sure Ive understood the UK program haha) … plus the Southern German dialects make it even more interesting!
Does anyone know any resources?
Thanks a lot!
Rene
From what I read, it appears you’re having an issue with the radio part of your training, nothing else – is that correct? If that’s correct, the best thing you can do is sit down with an experienced RT instructor and intensively practice approaches / departures into a controlled airport – all whilst in the classroom – because no english book will explain the German phraseology and vice versa ( ‘Nachricht übermitteln’ is not a standard in German RT 
and I’ve known many a german PPL, when confronted by this in UK airspace, ask: ‘Was will der von mir?’ )
If you’re having issues with theory in general, well, you could consider doing your theory in english at any certified flying school and, once you’ve passed that, do your practical at a german school. The theory documentation will be sent to the local Bezirksregierung for validation and all is good. Except, of course, for the RT – you’ll still need to do that in German…
Hello Rene,
Which part of the BZF did you fail (and why not go straight for the BZF I as an English speaker? ). Steve already has written a lot of good advice above. If you failed the practice exams I too strongly advise to do classroom practice with an instructor. Almost any FI will do, and your club should have the required approach charts for airports. The instructor will then act as ATC and you will be able to practice your RT without having to actually fly a plane simultaneously.
My BZF I exam was pretty simple: arrival in Erfurt (in German RT) and a special VFR departure from Braunschweig (in English ). Both were very simple and the main challenge was to mentally keep track of where you are with your imagined aircraft. Most of my own RT simply was readbacks and position reports (with vectors ). That’s why practicing with a map is so important, you fly virtual patterns.
As for the German language part of RT that should actually be easier than learning “normal” German because you can drop all the verb forms, articles etc. and everything more or less becomes a word for word translation of the English RT equivalent. Of course German B2 is very basic and will inevitably hamper you at dealing with any complicated task in German, so you should also work on improving your general German language skills.
EDIT: If you failed the theory exam (bit from what I understand you didn’t ) then going through the question banks repeatedly might help the most. I practiced with a software called “exam” or so from Peters Software (not related to our Peter afaik ). Of course the questions are written in a very technical and strangely formal German that even native speakers can find difficult to understand sometimes, and there is no easy work around for that apart from memorization.
There is also another, albeit rather exotic option called the BZF E, allowing VFR RT in English only.
The exams would also be in English, obviously.
Of course I don’t know your airfield, and the viability of this idea depends strongly on the availability of English communication with the VFR fields in your local area.
Maybe this could be an interim solution while brushing up your German.
If you are interested, here is a link to the application form.
I suppose this is too late, as you’re already in the process of doing your theory in German/y, but nothing in EASA-land requires you to do so. You could do/could have done the theory in your native (English?) language according to English textbooks, do the exams at a UK school/club (I did this at Andrewsfield) and still do the flying part of your PPL in Germany. This option would leave you with a UK PPL, that you could, but would not need to, convert to a German PPL. I’m flying on a UK license and I live in Germany. As far as radio is concerned, my UK license “comes” with a British radio telephony license. That’s good enough for any flying in English, i.e. all controlled airfields in Germany and elsewhere and most uncontrolled as well. Only those that require German to be spoken would be a problem. Strictly speaking, to use those, you would need to have a German radiotelephony license, too.
I am not sure about that. Does it specifically state in your R/T license that it is valid only for communications in the English language?
And before someone brings up LP, that has nothing to do with this, and additionally, English LP gives you the right to communicate in any language in EASA land according to FCL.050.
