"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
How would you handle the following situation.
You call up NY Approach, VFR, and say "Request class bravo clearance at
1500 for some sightseeing down the Hudson River". The controller says,
"Cleared into the class bravo as requested".

Sometime later, you realize you havn't heard from them for a while and
upon calling, get no response.

I'm not aware of any FARs that cover this situation. One might try and
apply the rules in 91.185 (IFR operations: Two-way radio communications
failure), but it's a bad fit for a number of reasons.

As well as the "fly the aeroplane" "squawk 7600" suggestions from a couple
of other people here, it's worth mentioning that some ATZs (in the UK, at
least) have published specific radio failure procedures, usually relating to
how to obtain permission to land. It's always worth checking before you set
out whether this is the case with the airfield you're flying out of/into.

Oh, and the other thing is: if you're not too busy thinking about flying the
aeroplane and keeping away from the busy bits of sky, think about what the
problem might be. Do you have a second COM box you could switch to, and do
you know how to switch to it? (I know at least one person who didn't know
how to switch to COM2 in our club's Warrior, and was really surprised when I
pointed out that you could listen to the ATIS on COM2 whilst remaining on
the Tower/Approach frequency on COM1). The other problem I had once was the
controller having trouble making out my broadcasts; I wondered whether the
switch on the yoke might be faulty (the rubber handgrip was coming loose, so
I figured that a wire might be becoming dislodged) and so I pulled the
headphone jacks out of my side, plugged them in the right-hand side, and
used the thumbswitch on the other yoke. It was a bit awkward to use, but it
solved the problem (and fortunately, the headset sockets on the PA-38 were
in the gap between the seats, not on the far side of the cabin like they are
in the Warrior).

I'm fortunate enough never to have a full radio failure - though I was on a
solo navex when I was a student and the RAF Marham controller's radio died.
One minute he was talking to me (very fuzzily) as I flew through his MATZ,
the next he wasn't there. So I switched to London Information and told them
of the situation; they gave him a bell and there was more than a little
amusement in the London guy's voice when he reported back to me: "His
radio's broken, he'll call you in five minutes when he's been to fetch a new
one".

D.