What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

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godsrcrazy
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by godsrcrazy »

Personally the whole French thing is BS. It will take one midair and loss of life then maybe someone will do something about it. It a real joke especially on the main line carriers. Look around when you get on a flight. Most everyone speaks English and most that don't speak english don't speak french. Always amazes me flying on flights North of 60. 70% of the people don't speak english our french.
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digits_
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by digits_ »

godsrcrazy wrote:It will take one midair and loss of life then maybe someone will do something about it.
Sad but true :|
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FADEC
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by FADEC »

Canada is one of the few places where a language other than English is allowed; it is actually illegal in France.

There is no good reason to have French; it is totally political.

We are doing no favour to permit French; if someone wants to have a career in Aviation, they will have to have "Aviation English" permitting the use of French is holding back everyone and endangering everyone.

However; as it is political, it requires a political solution; something that will not happen.
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timel
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by timel »

FADEC wrote:Canada is one of the few places where a language other than English is allowed; it is actually illegal in France.

There is no good reason to have French; it is totally political.

We are doing no favour to permit French; if someone wants to have a career in Aviation, they will have to have "Aviation English" permitting the use of French is holding back everyone and endangering everyone.

However; as it is political, it requires a political solution; something that will not happen.
Lol, French controllers speak French and English.
I flew my fair share north of 60. English French? Never been an issue. The problem isn't the language, the problem is racist assholes and norrow minded idiots who can't look beyond their villages or borders.
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digits_
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by digits_ »

FADEC wrote:Canada is one of the few places where a language other than English is allowed; it is actually illegal in France.
No it isn't. They actually issue french language proficency certificates :rolleyes:

On the other hand, you're supposed to speak aviation English on the radio, not whatever you please. If you see how hard it is for English speaking people to put in a little effort to stick to standard phraseology, you can't really blame French people for not putting in more effort to speak English.
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by Black_Tusk »

I can understand the French only in QC. However I recall flying around eastern Ontario (Timmins/Chapleau) and hearing a lot of French on 126.7. It made me pretty uncomfortable because for all I know they could be 1NM away or 30NM away. Out of QC, all uncontrolled calls should be made in English or at least both French and English. If you can't speak coherent English you have no business flying outside of QC.

As for you OP, since that guy clearly spoke English and understood your call it is %100 on him to reply to your English call.
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by Cat Driver »

There is an upside to this issue.

English is the international language of aviation.

Quebec french is not. :smt040
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by ahramin »

If you're relying on the radio to feel comfortable about spotting traffic you're already in trouble. There are midairs every year, none of them were caused by a language issue.
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Oldguystrtn2fly
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by Oldguystrtn2fly »

You were established in the circuit. He was not. What am I missing?
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by AirFrame »

Kejidog wrote:ou peut-être que vous pourriez ajouter quelque chose de constructif à la conversation?
I did. I ascertained that (unless you went to Google for that translation) you have a better grasp of French than you were letting on. So the problem was that you were flying in Quebec, where, rightly or wrongly, a significant percentage of the flying population speaks Quebecois on the air, yet you were caught off guard and didn't understand the french pilots around you. You could ask in either French or English for them to repeat, and if you still don't get it, you do have the option of breaking off and leaving the circuit until you can ascertain that it's free of people you can't understand.
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by photofly »

Black_Tusk wrote:I can understand the French only in QC. However I recall flying around eastern Ontario (Timmins/Chapleau) and hearing a lot of French on 126.7. It made me pretty uncomfortable
Turn your radio off. Problem solved!
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by JasonE »

My personal favorite this week was asking for an airport advisory in English and getting it in french.....I had to have my head on swivel every time I landed uncontrolled going through Quebec this week. It would have been greatly appreciated if people used English when there is an English pilot in the area making calls. The CYQB controller was responding to people in English while I transited for my benefit I believe.

Wish I had retained more of my high school French! It would have made for a safer journey. 126.7 was a complete waste of time to listen to as I had no idea what was going on.
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by Cat Driver »

When flying in foreign airspace you must be very careful and keep a constant lookout, even though you have transmitted your position and intentions some pilots may not understand English well enough to be aware of what you said..
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by B208 »

timel wrote: Never been an issue. The problem isn't the language, the problem is racist assholes and norrow minded idiots who can't look beyond their villages or borders.
Neither French nor English are races. If you absolutely must acuse someone of being an 'ist' the word you're looking for is tribalist.
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by Cat Driver »

the word you're looking for is tribalist.
You meant tribalist assholes didn't you? :smt040
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by AuxBatOn »

FADEC wrote:Canada is one of the few places where a language other than English is allowed; it is actually illegal in France.

There is no good reason to have French; it is totally political.

We are doing no favour to permit French; if someone wants to have a career in Aviation, they will have to have "Aviation English" permitting the use of French is holding back everyone and endangering everyone.

However; as it is political, it requires a political solution; something that will not happen.
I remember, not too long ago, flying a Mirage 2000N in Southern France and speaking French with ATC. Perhaps you want to check your facts.

To the OP: if I plan on flying to some airfield where there is no ATC in Spain, I will make sure I know the basic Spanish aviation words. Perhaps you should have done the same with French. You cannot expect every Quebec private pilot to learn English. This would be a Charter of Freedoms violation.
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by Posthumane »

To keep this discussion productive, does anyone have a link to a phraseology guide in French? There's a chance I may fly through Quebec some day and I'd like to pick up the basic phrases. I suppose I could just translate the English phrases but I'm not sure if it would be exactly what's used. Also, is the phonetic alphabet the same in Fr?
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by complexintentions »

The sad truth is that if you feel that your safety is being compromised, your only real option is to avoid flying in the Quebec region altogether because the "French English thing" will never go away.
This.

Quebec's insular policies are pretty much guaranteeing their increasing irrelevance and ironically, their extinction, in the future. Sad, really. Montreal is vibrant because of it's multilingual atmosphere. But go to any small town in Quebec and their unilingual policies basically reduce their residents' options to nothing.

In other words, don't sweat idiots "exercising their legal rights" on the radio. In the long run they're only hurting themselves. Just try to keep from getting hurt yourself in the meantime. Or choose not to fly there if that's possible.
AuxBatOn wrote:I remember, not too long ago, flying a Mirage 2000N in Southern France and speaking French with ATC.
hahahah Yes, we see what you did there.

("How do you know when there's a fighter pilot in the room?") :lol:
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Last edited by complexintentions on Wed Aug 30, 2017 7:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by HiFlyChick »

I wish I spoke better French, but the fact is, I don't. When I used to travel to Quebec more often, I had more chances to practice my (extremely limited) high school French, and gradually I learned a bit more vocabulary. Sadly, I don't get there very much now, and the small amount of French I used to be able to remember is fading fast.

I wish people could just set aside their political agendas and focus on safety. It's all very well and good to criticize the OP on not speaking French, but chances are, even if he knew some, he would not have caught all of the calls anyway. Pilots tend to rattle off their calls, no matter what language they're speaking in, so if you are not bilingual, knowing a few phrases in an alternate language may make you able to give a halting position report, but it probably won't help you catch someone else's rapid fire report.

When I was regularly in Quebec, I tried to slow down and enunciate clearly my calls in English, in the hopes that French speakers would do the same (and so people struggling with the opposing language would have a chance to translate my call in their head, like I was attempting to do). It's certainly a good idea to work on your French so you can understand as much as you can, but really, it defaults to whomever is closer to being bilingual to use some common sense and repeat the call in the language of the person who is having trouble.

We need to be helping each other out for the sake of safety and stop the name calling and animosity!
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Re: What is the deal with all the French on the radio?

Post by complexintentions »

No animosity. "Idiot" is a gentle word for people who would gladly jeopardize flight safety to make a point.

As I said, just go elsewhere if you have the choice. You won't miss much.
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