Originally Posted by
xcitation
Is it just my perception or is it that both FO's talk in vague terms. Lots of ambiguous references to up/down and to indicators. At one point is there confusion in what they are conversing about? I am not a native french speaker however at best the terminology sounds imprecise. Perhaps AF pilots have a verbal short hand? Did the pilots suddenly down shift from precise technical language only at the onset of problems?
You are right: spoken, colloguial French tends to be "sloppier" than the equivalent English.
Maybe just a red herring, but don't forget that the French also gesticulate (hands, general body language) a lot more - indeed a video would have been useful.
Another issue, as we see in recent posts, is that French has a plethora of different technical terms, which often (but not always...) mean exactly he same thing.
"Gauchissement" and "roulis" both refer to roll, either left of right (and NOT to "left rudder", a mistake that's already crept into several posts).
Same for "tangage" and "assiette" which both refer to pitch.
I should know.... I spent about half my life in France, and most of that in the aviation industry.... I still remember being baffled, when I first arrived here, by the confusing use of so many near-synonyms in documentation and reports.
Originally Posted by Shadoko
Think correct translation in English of aeronautic use of "gauchissement" is "wing warping".
Sorry... but you're wrong, unless you're talking about the "Wright Flyer" and aircraft from that age..
It may well be the logical original 'source' of the term in French aeronautical terminology, but today it just refers to "roll" or "roll angle".
Please mis-trust so-called "technical dictionaries" like the plague.....
I still remember having to switch abrupty from French "Concorde" terminology to "helicopter" terminology (change of occupation, another story...). The "dictionaries" and "vocabularies" were less than useless. Asking a collegue was the usual solution....
CJ