Funny thing on Guadeloupe
 

Hello all.

A funny thing is about to happen on Guadeloupe.

Yesterday evening I flew over from Canefield, Dominica to St Francois, Guadeloupe - an un-towered airport where Wood Aero are based who do my maintenance - went over to have my new wizzy 406 ELT installed in the Archer.

Overhead the island of Marie Gallante the Point a Pitre I was being worked by Pointe a Pitre approach when he suddenly piped up with "Do you speak French?", "no" says I "well" says he "from 10th October, all non-towered airports in Guadeloupe will be French language only".

I get what will be my last go on the CTAF, and land at St Francois. In chatting with Pierre, the Wood Aero guy, I say we will have to make some arrangements to get around the 10th October thing - he didn't know what I was talking about - half his customers are English speaking (there's even a German reg Partivavia on the aitfield), no one told him before or after it happened.

Today he asked around and it seems it is due to microlights - there are about a dozen of them on St Francois and, I counted, five modern two seat gyrocopters. Seems lots of problems with non-standard phrases and lack of radio disciplin - so simple solution ban English, stuff English being the language of international aviation.

So if anyone says microlight pilots aren't real pilots, it would seem that the authorities on Guadeloupe agree!

Only Guadeloupe though, does not apply on Martinique.

The solution of learning some pilot French will not work as the chit chat mixed in with the position reporting makes it impossible to determine the positions.

A real shame though as St Francois is a real gem; a sea sidetown, golf course next to the airfield, nice hotels, restaurants, beaches etc all walking distance from the airfield :(

Writing this from the BWA Chik - nice hotel - need to get the French language tapes out if I want to come back.

So anyone planning a flying holiday and thinking of all those lovely airports on Guadeloupe, if you don't speak French it's Pointe a Pitre only for you.

Non-towered airports? So just turn the radio off and keep your eyes peeled.

Negative. 1944 was wartime, and, especially in war, the winner takes it all. Spanish-speaking countries had little weight in WW2. Had the conference been in 1934 it might well have preferred German over French, if a choice had to be made.

Precisely. They're asking for it, after all.

I can only speak for France where a similar rule is in place at some uncontrolled, including non AFIS, aerodromes. The rule here is widely misunderstood by private pilots and flying clubs generally. The exemption simply allows that French is the standard at the aerodrome and not english (otherwise required by convention) so all calls should be made in French. You do not need to speak the french language but you should make all "standard" circuit calls in French.

So not too onerous other than to learn the standard position reports in french: overhead, downwind, baseleg, final, runway vacated etc.

The Chicago Convention took place on December 7th 1944. English as the recommended international language of aeronautical communications was decided much later in 1951.

Should one really? Where is the obligation? If not calling out at all, what law/rule will be violated?

But yes, I know, among the few fields in France that announce "FR only" there are a very few that also announce "carriage of radio mandatory". "Carriage", mind you, not "switching on" even less "listening" and even even less "talking". A bit of an ambiguous situation, I would say. I have no idea of the situation in the Caribbean but I'd not be surprised if there, even more than in "France Métropolitaine", much or even everything would be left to pragmatism and the basic principles of "good airmanship". Which is luckily undefined in law, as far as I know.

The use of french only at small airfields throughout france has become widespread. For the french only speaker it is of great benefit at their local airfield. In many cases the airfields exist only for the benefit of the commune as a place of recreation. Most of these airfields do not charge landing fees or they are minimal. They have the right to make reasonable conditions of use, to enhance safety, as they see fit. For the occasional non french speaker visitor it only requires a little effort to comply.

" has become widespread" ... "of great benefit" .... " in many cases " .... "most of these airfields " .... "occasional non-French speaker" ...

All the typical soft speak, nothing tangible. Where is the yes/no answer to my question?

Jan,

Wind your neck in: "Rules are made for the obedience of fools but for the guidance of wiser men".

Ok, so I just fly into France OCAS, talk only Swahili on the radio, and pretend I am a wise woman? :cool:

But really: this is only more soft-speak, more lack of tangible answers. Especially hard in France, with its bad reputation of enforcing rules harshly - ask those who were unfortunate (or "stupid", if you will) enough to stray near nuclear power plants.

Don't come and ask me why I prefer Germany (and the countries beyond, CZ, PL, SK, HU, ...) when flying abroad - as one soon must, if departing from a smallish country.

I'm hearing you, but unfortunately this is not the way the world works in 2019. Blind obedience has spilled over the pond as central virtue of modern society.

"Blind obedience" has indeed been imposed by certain aviation authorities. Not least the French, as pointed out above. A sorry evolution, yes, it is that.

I should say St Francois is an AOE.

Spent the weekend listening to the CTAF, one gyro I could follow, the others all larded their radio with chit chat about where they were going to have lunch so far as I could figure. The French thing would not be a problem if it was standard position reports.

This airport has a significant maintenance firm, so weird that they did not consult them or even inform them once they made the decision.

All the fault of microlights it seems:(