Radio Failure in Class Charlie

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PilotChase

Filing Flight Plan
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OkiePilot
The other day I was flying an Archer that I rented from the FBO at my local Class Delta airport. I took a passenger for their first flight for a city tour that falls within a Class Charlie. About 20 minutes into the flight, the radio begins to pick up static and everything I hear begins to sound slightly broken and muffled. By the time I am directly over the city and a few miles from the major airport within the Class C, the static is so bad I might as well have no radio. I squawked 7600 and began flying back down the VFR corridor to the Class D airport. I tuned in the Delta airport and heard just enough to understand I was cleared to land.

When I got back on the ground I called the tower and asked if they needed any information from me and they said I was good. Should I file a NASA for this, or could anything come back to me about this?

Edit: I am also curious if anyone knows what may have caused this? I flew another aircraft earlier in the day and had no issues so I know my headset was fine. I did cycle the avionics master.
 
Could be any number of things.

On one of my planes I had an old comm antenna with cracks in the surface that allowed in water which corroded the coax above the headliner where you couldn't see it. Radio worked fine on the ground, but started to go bad as soon as the antenna was subjected to air loads.
 
We lost both radios in my buddy's Mooney while on a left base into Madison inside the class C. We could hear them but we couldn't key up from either push-to-talk. It was just static. They knew immediately we had an issue. We acknowledged all instructions with an ident. They then knew we could hear them but just couldn't transmit. On the ground we called the tower to thank them for the help. Turned out the audio panel fried. Luckily there was a spare at the avionics shop on the field. We both now fly our planes with handheld radios... because the audio panel can take out all your radios!
 
You can file a. NASA if you want but no one is going to say anything more to you about it.
 
I think you’re fine.

I don’t see any reason that you’d be scrutinized. You followed protocol by squawking 7600 and returning to the airport. ATC knew what was going on, so they will vector traffic around you accordingly.

File a NASA if you feel the need, but I can’t see anything coming out of this.
 
This shows a misunderstanding of nasa reports. It’s not just a get out of jail free card. It’s meant to amass data about non normal ops that can affect safety. A lot of different deptartments and agencies use this data. Please file one any time something happens that you feel could effect safety. You can file as many as you want, but you can only use one within a certain time to midigate an enforcement action
 
Solar flares. According to the airlines, solar flares took out the satellites. Comm radios is the next logical step.

:rolleyes:
 
Ryanb said:
I think you’re fine.
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7725.jpg



Damn Man... you been workin out.

You're going to have to upgrade to a Cessna 150 twin.
 
unsafervguy said:
This shows a misunderstanding of nasa reports. It’s not just a get out of jail free card. It’s meant to amass data about non normal ops that can affect safety. A lot of different deptartments and agencies use this data. Please file one any time something happens that you feel could effect safety. You can file as many as you want, but you can only use one within a certain time to midigate an enforcement action
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Yup. The get out of jail free card is nothing more than to just encourage participation.
 
PilotChase said:
The other day I was flying an Archer that I rented from the FBO at my local Class Delta airport. I took a passenger for their first flight for a city tour that falls within a Class Charlie. About 20 minutes into the flight, the radio begins to pick up static and everything I hear begins to sound slightly broken and muffled. By the time I am directly over the city and a few miles from the major airport within the Class C, the static is so bad I might as well have no radio. I squawked 7600 and began flying back down the VFR corridor to the Class D airport. I tuned in the Delta airport and heard just enough to understand I was cleared to land.

When I got back on the ground I called the tower and asked if they needed any information from me and they said I was good. Should I file a NASA for this, or could anything come back to me about this?

Edit: I am also curious if anyone knows what may have caused this? I flew another aircraft earlier in the day and had no issues so I know my headset was fine. I did cycle the avionics master.
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I would absolutely file one. There is no downside.
 
Many years ago, I had a lost comm while transitioning through Oakland Tower's class C surface area. It was a stuck mic and it wouldn't release no matter how many times I poked the PTT button. I squawked 7600 and switched to a frequency that I figured probably wouldn't bother anyone so that I at least wouldn't be blocking tower comm with other aircraft, and I continued on my assigned routing until I was outside the class C area. Eventually I figured out that I could stop transmitting by switching the transmit knob to the TEL channel, and I used that like a PTT for the rest of the flight, while setting the receive button of the radio I wanted to listen to.
 
This really makes me want to get a portal radio @ my flight bag, as backup
 
I had a comm failure on an IFR flight once. I broke off the airway when I hit VFR conditions with the intention of landing someplace else, restored the comms, and they let me resume my IFR flight to my destination. Not that big of a deal.
 
<--- in the "no need to file" camp. It wasn't exactly a safety issue and ATC and pilots have procedures for dealing with it which sounds like everyone did what they were supposed to. IMO, it would be a waste of time.
 
I lost both my radios together awhile ago -- I could receive fine, but transmit was completely full of noise and static and was completely unreadable. At first it started getting a little noisy but still serviceable, and then got worse to the point where nothing I sent was readable at all. Of course, the complete failure happened on the way to Las Vegas, as I was about to be handed off to Las Vegas approach. They told me my transmission was unreadable and remain clear of the B. Fortunately I was on the way to Henderson anyway, and when I got close I was able to be understood enough by Henderson tower to land -- the problem was still intermittent.

After a couple rounds of troubleshooting and "no trouble found," I discovered that I could make it better by pressing down on the glare shield above the radio stack. Eventually it turned out there was a worn connection at the back of the panel, intermittently shorting to the metal piece it rubbed against with the vibration of the engine. Fixed with a zip tie and some electrical tape.

I now keep a portable in the plane, and I also ran a connection that allows me to connect the handheld radio to one of the external antennas, which dramatically increases range and makes it actually usable. :)
 
I lost my whole avionics stack a week ago today, in IMC. I descended below cloud towards my last cleared waypoint, then improvised the expected approach (in VMC, to an uncontrolled airport under terminal airspace) on my tablet so that ATC would know what I was doing, watching me as a primary target, and wouldn't divert traffic operating to/from the big airport. Here's the CADORS report:

https://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Su...t=&cmkdl=C&cmkxt=&rt=QR&hypl=y&cnum=2019O1489
 
PilotChase said:
Edit: I am also curious if anyone knows what may have caused this?
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Here's is what I have run into with what seemed a "squelch" knob was pulled and couldn't hear squat:

1. Squelch/volume knob on comm 1 was failing side to side (not in and out) and was so bad it was carrying across to comm 2 and was a $150 fix
2. Sun was hitting stack during a cross country and caused radios to over heat. Used a clib board t "shade" the stack and no further issues
3. Once had an ELT short in a rental that was causing same squelch break through
 
I have actually flown an airplane without a radio. Many times. Crazy I know. #luckytobealive
 
DFH65 said:
I have actually flown an airplane without a radio. Many times. Crazy I know. #luckytobealive
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When you're IFR in IMC in busy airspace, and the radio is how ATC is sequencing you and separating you from other traffic, a radio failure matters.

If you're relaxing flying a Cub in class G on a nice VMC day, a radio failure (or no radio) doesn't matter.

They're both great ways to fly, and many list members likely do both, but there's no point trying to muddle the two together.
 
While I was going through my avionics foibles I was frequently without radios. If you’re at some little grass strip in the middle of Podunck, East Bumphuk I suppose it doesn’t much matter. When you’re based at a busy Delta abutting a busy Charlie, it matters a lot. Used my handheld a lot. Can’t imagine why someone wouldn’t have one. Handhelds are cheap.
 
File it. Alway file it. It was almost a SOP in the early days of the "ADIZ" that became the "SFRA" in DC, after any flight with the slightest doubt. The FAA didn't have their ATC people and rules-writers on the same page. For a long time. And you never know if an azzhat supervisor, or non-aviation-type FAA bureaucrat, will decide to take a shot at you.
 
No reason to not file. It is a learning experience, which is part of the point of the NASA/ATSAP reports.

I'll 4th the handheld. Just no reason not to have one.
 
steingar said:
While I was going through my avionics foibles I was frequently without radios. If you’re at some little grass strip in the middle of Podunck, East Bumphuk I suppose it doesn’t much matter. When you’re based at a busy Delta abutting a busy Charlie, it matters a lot. Used my handheld a lot. Can’t imagine why someone wouldn’t have one. Handhelds are cheap.
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Do you have your handheld wired into an external antenna? If not, then what kind of range/reception are you getting with the little built-in antenna? Thanks.
 
Barry said:
This really makes me want to get a portal radio @ my flight bag, as backup
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Part of my MEL.

Had a com panel failure on a cross country away from home once at a Charlie airport. Was able to call ATIS, Ground, Tower, Departure...then make calls at home upon arrival all on the handheld. Yeah, it was all VFR in VMC but did not miss a beat having the com panel fail away form home with the HH on board.
 
Hi.
As others have mentioned, no reason not to file, things have a way of going in different direction when others in the system review things.
You've done all the right things that you could, at least from what we know, but filing is still a good idea, if there is a follow up the owner / club will likely be contacted.

Typically the kind of problems you describe are created by bad connections, bad capacitors, or interference from something else around. Next time try to tap on your instrument panel dash and see if it gets better, that sometimes helps if you have a bad connection.

I would not fly without a Hand Held in a busy area, one of the best investments a pilot can make in my opinion, before you even get a fancy Head set. Make sure batteries are good and have a spare set, before each flight.
 
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