Engrish In The Practice Area

As many of you probably know, there are two flight training Meccas. Florida and Arizona. People come from all over the world to train here in Arizona's 350 VFR days per year. The problem is, many CAN'T.

Among the many requirements of a student pilot, here's an interesting one:

Title 14 CFR, Part 61, Subpart C 61.83
(c) Be able to read, speak, write, and understand the English language. If the applicant is unable to meet one of these requirements due to medical reasons, then the Administrator may place such operating limitations on that applicant's pilot certificate as are necessary for the safe operation of the aircraft.


Several foreign carriers either have their own training center or contract out to local flight schools. A few that use Phoenix: Luftansa, KLM, China Airlines, Korean Airlines and Sabena. I'm not multilingual and regret not being so, but English is the international aviation language. Many students that speak English fluently have a difficult time learning radio procedures and dealing with that in a busy practice area is difficult enough. Add in a few lines like this for some real fun:


(Phonetically spelled for realism)

1. Sow wess pwactiss eweea - chewokee uhseren fouruh .... ((10 second pause with mic keyed on freq) ... nineow papa ouwfuh is tree kilo...um ahh...2 mile ees of wainbow varre at four athousan fie ahunre making starrs.

2. Stafeel...ahh...woeeo fiveuh zeewo papa ouwfuh is taa a sta staffeel Vee Ow Ahh ata fie athousan IRS miss appro fo cassuh gran...(pause with mic keyed for 10 seconds) uhhh ahhhh stafeel

As funny as it sounds, I'm not making fun of anyone's speaking ability. I'm just questioning why there are guys in a/c that cannot clearly speak English and spend time translating in their head with the mic keyed. Practice areas are dangerous enough, especially around VOR's and instrument approach areas.

We laughed about it during private because you can go anywhere for private pilot maneuvers and steer clear of the Engrish speakers. Now that I'm in instrument training, it scares the heck out of me.