AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2023 - 20

ON COURSE
Ident if you hear me
Lost coms in Class B
BY KOLLIN STAGNITO / Editor in Chief
AOPA Foundation Legacy Society member
WE WERE HOLDING SHORT of Runway 34 awaiting IFR release.
Jane, the pilot in command, had performed a thorough preflight-
not missing a single item on the innovative composite airplane's
extensive before-flight checklist. Neither she nor I wished to
make any mistakes departing from this busy Class B airport
on an instrument flight plan in visual conditions taking us to a
destination 400 miles away. I had offered to handle the radios
before we climbed into the airplane, but she was more familiar
with this airport and-as we had never flown together before-I
did not want to disrupt her rhythm by jumping in now.
This is a reminder that we pilots are often the weakest
link, and that proficiency in any one airplane is harder
to achieve if we fly multiple airplanes.
Soon enough we were cleared for takeoff, instructed to climb
to 1,500 feet, and told to expect vectors to intercept our filed
course. During climbout we were told to turn right to a heading
of 090. Jane read back the instruction and began a climbing right
turn. A few seconds later the controller repeated the instruction
and Jane repeated the readback. We looked at each other with
the same 'I wonder why he did that' expression on our faces.
Quickly, the problem became clear-and urgent.
" November One-Three-Three-Alpha-Bravo, I'm not receiving
your transmission, " said the controller. " Ident if you can hear
me. " Jane immediately pressed the ident button as she adroitly
hand flew the climbing right turn. The potential seriousness of
the situation hit me. Here we were in heavily congested airspace
with airliners taking off and landing all around us and we were
unable to talk to ATC-other than through ident smoke signals.
It's a situation neither of us had been in before.
" November One-Three-Three-Alpha-Bravo try switching
radios, " suggested the controller. Jane switched to Com 2 and
dialed in the tower frequency while continuing to hand fly the
airplane. Feeling a bit helpless, I was monitoring her altitude and
heading to make sure we remained on course as she was now
completely task saturated. Jane's call to the tower on Com 2 was
20
AOPA PILOT / May 2023
obviously unheard as the tower now told us to climb to 3,000 feet
and ident to confirm his instruction.
What's our next step, I thought, not knowing if we'd be asked
to fly an approach back to the airport or sent on our way for
another controller to tackle our partial coms situation. The latter:
" Contact departure on One-Three-Zero point Five-Five, " said
the controller. I yearned to make the radio call to provide Jane
some breathing room, but she was quick to change frequency
and check in.
To my surprise the controller could hear us. " How did you
fix it? " I asked Jane. " My fault, I was pressing the wrong button
on the control stick, " she confessed, " The other airplane I fly
has a black push-to-talk button on the top of the stick. I was
pushing the black control wheel steering button on the top of
this stick. This airplane actually uses a trigger on the front of
the stick for push-to-talk. " It was a case of muscle memory
when you don't want it.
After we leveled off at cruise altitude, we debriefed on what
we could have done differently to prevent our anxiety-inducing
departure. Jane could have reduced her workload by asking me
to handle the radios-and that's exactly what she did after we
regained communication.
As it turned out, my stick did not have the black button
on top, only the push-to-talk trigger, so it would have been
impossible for me to push the wrong button. Conversely, I
could have been more proactive in offering to handle the radios
knowing we would have a busy departure in Class B airspace.
Jane said she planned to file a NASA aviation safety report so
others could learn from her mistake.
This is a reminder that we pilots are often the weakest link,
and that proficiency in any one airplane is harder to achieve if
we fly multiple airplanes.
Ultimately, I was impressed by the way Jane remained calm
under pressure and worked the problem. She maintained control
of the airplane-and the
situation-by aviating first,
navigating second, and
communicating third.
kollin.stagnito@aopa.org
KOLLIN STAGNITO, AOPA
senior vice president of media and
marketing, is a commercial pilot
and owns a 1947 Cessna 140.
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2023

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