Comments on: Some French aviation terms

By: Philippe

Philippe — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 11:21:15 +0000

And while we’re at it: “upwind side” is “côté vent debout”. Glad to be of help!

By: david

david — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:52:29 +0000

Thanks everyone, and especially Philippe. I’ve made the additions and changes you suggested, and would be grateful for more French/Quebecois aviation terms commonly heard on the radio.

By: Philippe

Philippe — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:01:06 +0000

Changing the second “r” of amerrissage to a “d” is brilliant! It’s my language and I’m pissed that I didn’t think of it first. Will now be on my list of useful terms when a float student goofs it up.

For touch and go, “touché-décollé” isn’t used much – we use “posé-décollé” which is literally “set down-take off”.

Other ones you will hear often is “en vent traversier” for the crosswind leg in the circuit, “du côté inactif” for the inactive side of the circuit, and “les installations” when referring to the field or the airport building, as in “verticale des installations” when above the field, or “5 milles des installations” when reporting the distance.

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 23:31:39 +0000

The quebecois term for an FBO is “le FBO”, or more commonly “le esso”, or “le shell”, etc.

By: david

david — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 20:15:24 +0000

Thanks, Aviatrix. I hadn’t heard of “amerrissage” — it is nicely symmetrical, as you say, and has the added benefit that it’s easy to make a pun on a bad water landing by changing the second ‘r’ to a ‘d’.

By: Aviatrix

Aviatrix — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:41:53 +0000

That’s a great list. My favourite French aviation term is amerrissage. It has beautiful symmetry with atterrissage and underscores the stupidity of the English term “water landing.”

By: david

david — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:59:34 +0000

Thanks, Blake. That link didn’t work for me, but this one does:

http://www.navcanada.ca/logiterm/termino.php

And according to it, FBO is “exploitant d’aérodrome privé”, though I don’t know that I’ve ever heard the term in use.

By: Blake

Blake — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 22:33:38 +0000

I’m fluent in French, but I don’t know any of the aviation terms in French. The Nav Canada bilingual terminology database came in handy.

You can search it here: http://www.navcanada.ca/logiterm/addon/terminav/termino.php