View Single Post
  #3  
Old October 9th 07, 07:15 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,851
Default Does VFR Operation Require A High Level Of Language Proficiency?

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in
oups.com:

On Oct 9, 4:41 am, Larry Dighera wrote:
Does VFR Operation Require A High Level Of Language Proficiency? It
looks like some in Europe would think it might:

IAOPA WINS LANGUAGE REPRIEVE
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#196325)
The International Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has
successfully lobbied the International Civil Aviation

Organization
(ICAO) to delay by three years implementation of onerous language
proficiency rules it says would severely limit VFR flight in much
of Europe. Under the ICAO proposal, all pilots would require to
demonstrate a high level of proficiency in either English or the
language of the country in which they are flying. In an interview
with AVweb at AOPA Expo in Hartford, IAOPA General Secretary John
Sheehan said the rule makes sense for IFR operations but not for
recreational flyers. "For VFR people it doesn't make any sense,"
Sheehan said. "I don't think [VFR] requires a high level of
[language] proficiency."

Given the US's provision for NORDO VFR operations, that has probably
been in the regulations since their inception, one can only conclude
that VFR operation doesn't even require any communication at all.


Most pilots would consider NORDO to be an emergency operation. All
public use airports need communication. Flying into an airport (even a
very small one) without talking could certainly be considered careless
or reckless.

By some maybe, not by me.


I have flown thousands of hours of no radio ops. The place I did this
most at has had one midair over the years. Someon (with a radio) bucked
traffic because he'd made a unicom broadcast and collided with one of
our tow planes.

K've flown the length and breadth of the US and canada in airplanes with
no radios whatsoever in them.

Flew right over the top of JFK in one, as a matter of fact

Bertie


Bertie