Narrative:

While enroute on an IFR flight there were several handoffs to various facilities. During this portion of the flight I checked messages on my iphone and pushed resend on an unsent message and then stowed the phone in my pocket. After receiving a frequency change and entering the frequency in the radio I noticed a hot sensation from my pants pocket. Engaged autopilot; removed phone and it was quite hot. Tried without success to get the cover off the phone to remove battery. Retrieved towel and water from rear seat area and wrapped phone in damp towel with intent to jettison it should it begin to smoke. Due to the distraction I did not check in on the assigned frequency. Sometime later I recognized that I had not heard from the facility although I could hear from other aircraft talking with a facility. Could not establish contact. Monitored a couple of frequencies and got altimeter from readback from aircraft. Got center frequency from low altitude enroute chart and checked in with oak center who seemed to be expecting me. Later canceled IFR and proceeded to destination.the iphone appeared to be dead when tested on the ground. Battery had been fully charged in the vehicle driving to the airport. Charging did not restore phone; but tech was able to bring back to life after long charge and 'rebooting software.' apparently I am not alone regarding the overheating phone. It appears there are some combinations of software that will cause the phone to overheat. An internet search did not find any phones that went beyond changing color of the cases. Understand that phone has temperature sensor. Lesson is the obvious need to shut the phone down before flight and after a distraction occurs to carefully reconstruct what was happening prior to the distraction; i.e. The need to check in on new frequency.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An M20T pilot failed to check in with a new Center frequency when distracted by an overheating cellphone.

Narrative: While enroute on an IFR flight there were several handoffs to various facilities. During this portion of the flight I checked messages on my Iphone and pushed resend on an unsent message and then stowed the phone in my pocket. After receiving a frequency change and entering the frequency in the radio I noticed a hot sensation from my pants pocket. Engaged autopilot; removed phone and it was quite hot. Tried without success to get the cover off the phone to remove battery. Retrieved towel and water from rear seat area and wrapped phone in damp towel with intent to jettison it should it begin to smoke. Due to the distraction I did not check in on the assigned frequency. Sometime later I recognized that I had not heard from the facility although I could hear from other aircraft talking with a facility. Could not establish contact. Monitored a couple of frequencies and got altimeter from readback from aircraft. Got Center frequency from low altitude enroute chart and checked in with OAK Center who seemed to be expecting me. Later canceled IFR and proceeded to destination.The Iphone appeared to be dead when tested on the ground. Battery had been fully charged in the vehicle driving to the airport. Charging did not restore phone; but tech was able to bring back to life after long charge and 'rebooting software.' Apparently I am not alone regarding the overheating phone. It appears there are some combinations of software that will cause the phone to overheat. An internet search did not find any phones that went beyond changing color of the cases. Understand that phone has temperature sensor. Lesson is the obvious need to shut the phone down before flight and after a distraction occurs to carefully reconstruct what was happening prior to the distraction; i.e. the need to check in on new frequency.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.