Lost Comm

On 07/28/09 12:58, Gulfside wrote:
Flying IMC into Atlanta area (RYY) on the Turbow Eight Arrival, past TRBOW
heading for PUMIF, line of convective activity just NW of PUMIF. The comms
are becoming intermittent with intermittent communications. ATC issues
heading change and new altitude just prior to convective activity (as
expected) and assigns a 360 heading (again to miss some activity). After
acknowledging the new info the comms failed, I'm fumbling around with aux
mic., radar, Nexrad, etc... The end of convection was clearly on radar (on
board and NEXRAD), as well as being confirmed by ATIS from PDK and RYY.
Rather than squawking 7600 I flew assigned heading with a minor zig to avoid
a cell, then was VFR in about 3 / 4 minutes; squawked VFR and headed for
home below ATL airspace. My reasoning for not squawking 7600 was two fold;
1) Didn't want to upset traffic coming into ATL on a busy day with limited
corridors, 2) Could see end to situation in short amount of time. What
are your thoughts?



Note: I haven't flown in such a busy environment, so my opinion about
your specific case may be worth nothing...

I think you should have squawked 7600 if for no other reason than to
let ATC know that you're comms failed. You are required to provide
reports of malfunctioning equipment, and this certainly counts.

I think I would have left it as 7600 until I was in clear VMC and
able to continue under VFR, then switched to 1200 to let them know
that I was VFR at that point. I think I would have made sure I was
squawking 7600 for at least 5 minutes or so, just to make sure they
saw it.

Since ATC was still seeing your primary (and secondary) radar returns,
they may have thought (for a while anyway) that you were just on the
wrong frequency or worse, ignoring them. Also, they would probably
expect you to squawk 7600 if your comms have failed, so by you not
doing so you may make them think something else is going on.

And by the way, thanks for sharing an actual IFR issue on the IFR
newsgroup. Not been much of that lately. :-\

--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane, USUA Ultralight Pilot
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA