What ENGLISH is acceptable?
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What ENGLISH is acceptable?
I hear many transmissions around the Melbourne area, which are garbled and unreadable, if you pick up one syllable you are lucky. I have been held up several times lately whilst trying to enter controlled airspace , as the controller is trying to make sense of one of these transmissions. In my opinion these students should not be sent solo until they can understand and speak basic aviation english. 
Q
Q
Jeez - don't try flying outside Australia then....
Yup - Try flying out of somewhere like Iraklion in Greece. EVERY point on the departure, and there's lots of them, ends in '..os', so you end up with about ten places that all sound the same.
"Say again slower please" does little.
Just down the road in Crete there's a somethingorother departure that's a "two alpha", but the way they pronounce it, it comes out as "Twelve".
God I love flying in Australia, it's soooo easy!
Yup - Try flying out of somewhere like Iraklion in Greece. EVERY point on the departure, and there's lots of them, ends in '..os', so you end up with about ten places that all sound the same.
"Say again slower please" does little.
Just down the road in Crete there's a somethingorother departure that's a "two alpha", but the way they pronounce it, it comes out as "Twelve".
God I love flying in Australia, it's soooo easy!
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English may not be the only one of ICAO Aviation Languages but it is the one that is required to be spoken here. I really don't care what language they speak overseas. I understand that the Pakies and the Indians are the worst, but they are better than what I have been hearing lately. Cheers Q
I don't want to be the best pilot in the world - Just the oldest
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Hey Q,
you're not by any chance related to a certain xenophobic G3 we had at Jandakot a year or so back are you?
Word of advice, if you don't like communicating with others who lack your superior English skills, stay away from Merredin WA and 100 nm radius thereof.
you're not by any chance related to a certain xenophobic G3 we had at Jandakot a year or so back are you?
Word of advice, if you don't like communicating with others who lack your superior English skills, stay away from Merredin WA and 100 nm radius thereof.
Cheers Q
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QNIM
If you ever go that way you will find the 'Pakis and Indians' are no problem, very clear in fact. If you want difficult ATC try anywhere in China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia or, for sheer speed of delivery, the USA.
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I see there's an article about English usage in the crash comics this month.
Haven't read it yet but it may shed some light on this topic.
A quick glance suggests they are going to make it a compulsory study for non native speakers. Some native speakers could also use a bit of help too.
Haven't read it yet but it may shed some light on this topic.
A quick glance suggests they are going to make it a compulsory study for non native speakers. Some native speakers could also use a bit of help too.
Grandpa Aerotart
Blue eagle spot on!!
Coming out of Cambodia one night enroute Singapore neither of us could understand what the Thai lady controller had said on the handover...but in my minds eye she was georgous so I didn't mind
Funny thing was after several 'say agains' we finally just gave up and then several minutes later it suddenly made sense and we both looked at each other and laughed.
I also found India, Bangladesh, Pakistani, Nepalese controllers spoke very well and were generally of a pretty high standad.
That Flight safety article suggests initial/recurrent engish language testing for non speakers...fine idea but I can't see it working outside of places like Oz/US/UK.
Do we really expect China to send all it's ATCOs to English school? I've been to a spot in China where we had to carry a Hainan Airlines F/O because the ATCOs spoke NO English and the approach plate was in Mandarin too
Beautifull spot and the young Chinese F/O was excellent.
Chuck.
Coming out of Cambodia one night enroute Singapore neither of us could understand what the Thai lady controller had said on the handover...but in my minds eye she was georgous so I didn't mind
Funny thing was after several 'say agains' we finally just gave up and then several minutes later it suddenly made sense and we both looked at each other and laughed.
I also found India, Bangladesh, Pakistani, Nepalese controllers spoke very well and were generally of a pretty high standad.
That Flight safety article suggests initial/recurrent engish language testing for non speakers...fine idea but I can't see it working outside of places like Oz/US/UK.
Do we really expect China to send all it's ATCOs to English school? I've been to a spot in China where we had to carry a Hainan Airlines F/O because the ATCOs spoke NO English and the approach plate was in Mandarin too
Beautifull spot and the young Chinese F/O was excellent.
Chuck.
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I don't care how bad their English is - the good news is that they are doing their training here and not somewhere where they could maybe get a licence out of a vending machine. One day I just might be a passenger in the back of one of theirs, meantime I don't mind at all sharing the airspace with them. They have to start somewhere, and as someone said, their English is a whole lot better than my Spanish, or Cantonese, or Swahili.
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Lets get back to the original comment. Nothing to do with flying over seas or traffic controlers and thier accents. Q is obviously talking about student pilots in the Melbourne area. I don't think anyone should be allowed to fly solo in Australia if they don't have a good grasp on English....anyone who does not think that is a safety issue is kidding themselves.
Their English might be a whole lot better than my Spanish, Cantonese, or whatever, but I'm not the one not trying to learn how to fly an aircraft in a none-english speaking country. Can anyone seriously say they would be stupid enough to go and do their flight training in a none english speaking country that required you to understand another language if you had next to no grasp of that language .
Same with these overseas students who come over and do Australian Uni courses with next to no clue on how to speak english....it can get frustrating having something explained to the class 3 or 4 times cause they can't wrap their head around the language. I wouldn't do a Uni degree in China cause I don't speak Chinese.....common sense I would have thought.
Their English might be a whole lot better than my Spanish, Cantonese, or whatever, but I'm not the one not trying to learn how to fly an aircraft in a none-english speaking country. Can anyone seriously say they would be stupid enough to go and do their flight training in a none english speaking country that required you to understand another language if you had next to no grasp of that language
.Same with these overseas students who come over and do Australian Uni courses with next to no clue on how to speak english....it can get frustrating having something explained to the class 3 or 4 times cause they can't wrap their head around the language. I wouldn't do a Uni degree in China cause I don't speak Chinese.....common sense I would have thought.
Having quite a few years experience OS I think the secret is knowing WHAT is about to be said! Standard phraseology makes the "accent" troubles reduce. One problem with student/private pilots here is that they use too many calls and even then not standard - the other day an asian student gave "20 miles"/"5 miles"/"entering circuit"/"downwind"/"on final"/"clear of runway" into a CTAF with NO replies [because no traffic there] but cluttering up a busy frequency for many miles. Stick to the minimum standard calls and you will understand them regardless of accents because you will be expecting the same words!
