Hi All,
During a recent (and beautiful) trip to Spain, I found out that at some airfields pilots were kindly switching to English when they heard me on the A/A frequency but at other places they carried on in Spanish. I did not find in the AIP (Guía VFR from ENAIRE) on whether specific airfields were Sp only or Sp/En. Did I miss it?
I can speak and understand Spanish, but I believe an LPC would be required to operate at a Sp-only airfield if indicated as such. Does someone know where one could get an exam for this? I was also unable to find a table or map with frequencies for all FIS on the territory.
Cheers
BOD wrote:
I can speak and understand Spanish, but I believe an LPC would be required to operate at a Sp-only airfield if indicated as such.
Here we go again. By the letter of the law, it is NOT required (if you do have English LP). Many threads on that.
So, from a practical point of view, the only question might be, where can I learn the Spanish required to properly do the radio at an uncontrolled airfield?
https://www.sociedadaeronautica.org/las-fases-de-un-vuelo-mas-alla-del-despegue-y-aterrizaje/
https://www.manualvuelo.es/6tcv2/61_circt.html
Someone had built a nice crib sheet for French uncontrolled airfield phraseology (basically downwind, final, go around, airfield information), and hopefully a local might adapt it for Castellano. Phraseology is slightly different in South America.
If someone sends me that crib sheet I can give a go at a translation, to be corrected by any native speakers if needed.
Other than the above links by Robert, you could ask whether a local instructor from an aeroclub of FTO would be willing to sit with you for a few hours.
As to FIS frequencies, there are no separate ones. FIS is handled by the APP frequencies of major airports, which you’ll have in your nav eq’t database, SD or whatever other app you are using. But just to be sure, when you enter from another country, the FIS of that country would tell you who to contact, and during your passage through Spain they will pass you on. However, they may be busy or forget about you or you may lose coverage, so what works best is to ask them at some point in time what your next frequency will be on your routing to xxxx.
Thanks to both of you for the quick replies and the useful links!
RobertL18C wrote:
Someone had built a nice crib sheet for French uncontrolled airfield phraseology
I used the excellent cheat sheet from 172Driver: https://www.euroga.org/forums/flying/798-french-english-radiotelephony-phrases#post_10628, which is probably the one you are referring to, Robert.
boscomantico wrote:
By the letter of the law, it is NOT required (if you do have English LP)
You are right, for reference (AIRCREW FCL.055):
Aeroplane, helicopter, powered-lift and airship pilots required to use the radio telephone shall not exercise the privileges of their licences and ratings unless they have a language proficiency endorsement on their licence in either English or the language used for radio communications involved in the flight. The endorsement shall indicate the language, the proficiency level and the validity date, and it shall be obtained in accordance with a procedure established by a competent authority. The minimum acceptable proficiency level is the operational level (Level 4) in accordance with Appendix 2 to this Annex.
boscomantico wrote:
By the letter of the law, it is NOT required (if you do have English LP)
I am easily confused but how does that equate with the thread using German to fly into German Only speaking airfields or local uncontrolled airfields?It’s because they are two different subjects. One is ICAO language proficiency regulation, the other is a German radiotelephony regulation.
OK so that leads me to ask for clarification
If I as a French pilot with French radiotelephony stamp and an ELP and enough Spanish and German to communicate leading up to and in the circuits of a Spanish or German uncontrolled airport where only the native language could realistically be expected to be used, can I fly into the airfields speaking the local language but without a language proficiency.
gallois wrote:
OK so that leads me to ask for clarification
If I as a French pilot with French radiotelephony stamp and an ELP and enough Spanish and German to communicate leading up to and in the circuits of a Spanish or German uncontrolled airport where only the native language could realistically be expected to be used, can I fly into the airfields speaking the local language but without a language proficiency.
Not German in Germany, no idea about Spain. There are many threads about this, just search BZF in the field above.
I am in your situation and I will take the German BZFII test in the near future, there is a recent thread about that in “flying”.
