PA28 pilot on a practice missed approach with instructor experiences lost communications with ATC. A...

Attributes
ACN	1113545
Time
Date	201308
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	SAC.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-28R Cherokee Arrow All Series
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Integrated Audio System
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 16.8 Flight Crew Total 624.2 Flight Crew Type 368.6
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

I was practicing instrument approaches with my instructor. The aircraft has a new garmin gtn-650 and the touch screen was new to both of us. We did a missed approach from sacramento and contacted approach control for another. We were given vectors by ATC. We did not hear from ATC for about 8 minutes then got a call from the tower to contact ATC. Somehow the VHF frequency was swapped; perhaps by an inadvertent touch of the screen; and the radio was actually receiving tower frequency again. There were towers in the area ATC was concerned about; but in actuality it was VFR and my instructor had them in sight so there was no real safety issue. It is important to get familiar with new equipment and what problems may occur with it (that is part of why we were training). One needs to be careful not to touch the touch screen inadvertently; check radio communication if nothing is heard for a suspicious length of time; and visually verify the frequency display of the receiver.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA28 pilot on a practice missed approach with instructor experiences lost communications with ATC. A new Garmin GTN-650 touch screen was being used and it is believed that an inadvertent touch caused the departure frequency to be swapped to the Tower frequency.

Narrative: I was practicing instrument approaches with my instructor. The aircraft has a new Garmin GTN-650 and the touch screen was new to both of us. We did a missed approach from Sacramento and contacted Approach control for another. We were given vectors by ATC. We did not hear from ATC for about 8 minutes then got a call from the Tower to contact ATC. Somehow the VHF frequency was swapped; perhaps by an inadvertent touch of the screen; and the radio was actually receiving Tower frequency again. There were towers in the area ATC was concerned about; but in actuality it was VFR and my instructor had them in sight so there was no real safety issue. It is important to get familiar with new equipment and what problems may occur with it (that is part of why we were training). One needs to be careful not to touch the touch screen inadvertently; check radio communication if nothing is heard for a suspicious length of time; and visually verify the frequency display of the receiver.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

PA28 pilot on a practice missed approach with instructor experiences lost communications with ATC. A new garmin gtn-650 touch screen was being used and it is believed that an inadvertent touch caused the departure frequency to be swapped to the tower frequency.