[patowalker]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/nats-secrets-of-air-traffic-control-in-the-uk/

[malcolmfrost]

Canada (Quebec), Brazil, China, Russia just off the top of my head.....

[Charliesixtysix]

The 500 miles we flew across France today didn't appear to substantiate the no English claim.

We couldn't have asked for better service ( or better weather overall for a flight of that distance, unlike the last 100 miles in the gloom of high English summer...) .

[VRB_20kt]

explains Martin Rolfe, CEO of NATS,

"Light aircraft sometimes wander into busy flight paths

“We generally are able to track them down, sometimes with the help of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and have a chat with them,” said Rolfe. “People in Cessnas and light aircraft. They will take off and either get lost because something happens to them or they haven’t briefed themselves well enough and they fly into controlled airspace and then we have to fly passenger jets a different path. We go into local flying clubs and talk about the dangers of flying into our space.”"

[matthew_w100]

I can't believe that the Telegraph web site had the cheek to ask me to turn off my ad blocker "to help fund our award-winning journalism."..."so that you can continue to access our quality content".

Show me some and I might.

Not really.

[flybymike]

explains Martin Rolfe, CEO of NATS,

"Light aircraft sometimes wander into busy flight paths

“We generally are able to track them down, sometimes with the help of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and have a chat with them,” said Rolfe. “People in Cessnas and light aircraft. They will take off and either get lost because something happens to them or they haven’t briefed themselves well enough and they fly into controlled airspace and then we have to fly passenger jets a different path. We go into local flying clubs and talk about the dangers of flying into our space.”"

Appalling patronising cr*p.

[johnm]

NATS CEO and journalist know a little bit about aviation, but not a lot, no surprise there then

[GrahamB]

explains Martin Rolfe, CEO of NATS, We go into local flying clubs and talk about the dangers of flying into our space.”"

My bold.

Not that I'm excusing infringements per se, but if he genuinely said that and genuinely believes that he needs to be taken to one side and have some basics explained to him.

[ch.ess]

Load of bull, especially as to the languages.
In all countries I visit, controllers and pilots will slip into their language when amongst themselvers (e.g. Italy, Germany).
Communication will be in English, if initial call is in English and if there is traffic info that is relevant for all.
Same in France.
Pity that the Telegraph can't get informed people to talk to them about subject matter,

[Pete L]

We may not be shareholders or pay direct navigation fees but we are his customers just the same. NATS currently holds on the en-route contract that provides FIS.

And NATS, as GonzoEGLL pointed out, is just one of many UK ATS providers.

[GonzoEGLL]

Is it conceivelable Martin actually said air space but has been mis-transcribed from the audio as our space?

Also, having been interviewed once before by the mainstream press, the amount of editing and paraphrasing was high. Any subtlety, nuance and complexity was stripped out by the reporter and any subbing that went on, in order to get a 'Ten Things You Didn't Know About ATC, You Won't Believe Number Six!' type of story. It wouldn't surprise me that this is what has happened here.

[joe-fbs]

This attitude by ATSUs that they own airspace is a trend?

There is the recent letter from Glasgow talking about "our airspace" and a recent MOR from Oxford talking about the Class G around it as CAS. See this thread

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=104675&p=1545431&hilit=glasgow#p1545431

The CEO of NATS may or may not believe what he says but he is going to say things like that as part off the political activities he must do on behalf of his employers.

Even those of us that don't operate CAT know that they all have level busts and the like, we see some hint of it in the monthly GA Occurrences report which also includes some light CAT.

Just looked at the NATS board on their web site. Aviation experienced people are a minority and there is no sign of anyone knowing anything about aviation which is neither CAT nor military.

AOPA needs to get lobbying.

[johnm]

I'd be up for a NED job at NATS

[James33]

The RT rules in France say : Languages allowed are English or French, except if the charts say different.

They also say that French should be used between French controllers and French pilots unless for training purposes.

In practice, this means that you will generally hear a combination of both.

There is a whole generation of proficient, experienced pilots who have never learned, and indeed will never learn English. For cultural reasons alone, trying to impose English everywhere would cause pandemonium.

EASA rules on language proficiency are causing a headache for many of the "old guard", since ICAO Level 4 English is now mandatory to renew the IR, even if you never fly outside of France.

I recently did an intensive course with the owner of one of France's oldest and most respected flight schools. At the age of 71 and with 27,000 flight hours (all in GA aircraft!), he was being threatened with losing his IR and associated instruction privileges despite the fact he had never once flown abroad in all that time.

The French authorities recently launched a consultation about making English mandatory within certain parts of controlled airspace. Needless to say, the French federation and other important lobbies are up in arms about the idea.

My opinion is that if English were to be imposed, it should only be in class A airspace (where almost all pilots will be English proficient anyway) and on tower frequencies at busy international fields where loss of situational awareness due to dual language use can lead to serious near misses, and indeed have caused collisions in the past.

[kanga]

I've used French in flight more in Canada than in France ..

[and other languages elsewhere, including Welsh in UK; but usually only for exchange of courtesies ]