172,
Spanish pilots tend to speak Spanish on the radio, and on small, non-towered fields (think LEBA, LEJU, etc), it's good to at least have an idea what the other traffic is up to
I certainly agree on both counts. I dislike them doing so, but I recognise they are within their right to use Spanish on the radio (in Spain only... unfortunately it's not unheard of for the Perpignan controllers to have to revert to Spanish on the radio, in the interest of safety
) I also acknowledge the very few Spanish PPLs who make an effort to use English in busy airspace, and my respect goes to them.
LEAX is different in that officially at least they do not allow English on the radio there at all. IME that's different than say LEBA, where a) it is permitted, and b) the Spaniards in the circuit will usually switch to English when you come in on the frequency.
However, that is the only case I am aware of. All public airports are EN/ES, and so are all the other private airports in Spain I'm familiar with (except perhaps for LEAP, where de facto it's EN/ES/FR/DE, and on a good day Moroccan Arabic and Swedish if you're lucky
)
Now we just need IO540 to chip in to tell us how it makes no difference what they speak on the radio, as once on the ground you'll be lost anyway without a working knowledge of the local lingo
. Ok, he's got a point there but on terra firma it does not become a safety issue (unless it's to say "mi avión se está quemando"), and one can always gesticulate anyway.