Roy Smith writes:
I had an interesting little experience last night.

We were inbound to MMK (Meriden CT) for a practice GPS-36, talking to
Bradley Approach. MMK is right on the edge between Bradley and NY
Approach's airspace, and radio coverage tends to be spotty there.

Conditions were night, IFR, but VMC with good visibility.

Anyway, we were on a 190 vector (i.e. on downwind, away from the
airport, and away from Bradley's airspace) when we lost contact with
Bradley. A Delta flight relayed a frequency change to us, but there was
no joy on that frequency either. We could just barely hear Bradley, but
not enough to make out what they were saying.

Anyway, GPS is wonderful. We just punched in "Nearest ARTCC", and tried
Boston Center on the frequency that popped up. Nothing we couldn't have
done by flipping through charts and the AFD, but so much easier! They
heard us loud and clear, and when we explained what happened, the
controller quickly got us a frequency for NY Approach which worked just
fine.

The odd thing is that NY Approach then continued to handle us on the
approach. The NY controller vectored us back on to the FAC, told us to
report the FAF to him, and told us to contact Bradley (on the original
frequency) on the missed (the missed takes you deeper into Bradley
airspace, with better radio coverage). I can only assume that since the
NY controller knew the details of the approach and was able to give us
vectors to it, this sort of stuff must have happened before.

We flew the approach, went missed, and got back in touch with Bradley.
The Bradley controller acted like nothing strange had happened at all.

Nothing too exciting, but a good learning experience for the two
students I had with me.

Sounds like a good enough experience to make it part of
the syllabus if you can rely on the unreliability.