Narrative:

I was asked to help with an annual inspection as I'm building time towards the a&P. I was in the aircraft as a passenger when it was flown cross country on an IFR flight plan for the annual. All went well on the flight and the annual was completed three days later. The pilot; and aircraft owner; was a newly rated instrument pilot and wanted to depart on an IFR flight plan. The weather was clear along the entire flight path. I recommended several times that it would be best to fly the aircraft near the airport for a while to be sure all was working well. An IFR flight plan had already been filed; the details of which I did not know. The pilot decided on taxi to stay in the pattern and do one landing before proceeding enroute. How this affected our proposed IFR departure time I do not know as I did not have any flight plan information. It was agreed that I would write down the egt and cht readings during the climb and cruise as the engine instruments were all on the passenger side; and an egt probe was replaced during the annual inspection. I ask several times if the pilot needed any help with the radios. I was told 'no I've got this'. During this portion of flight the pilot attempted to contact center with no success. We had just departed. Another attempt to contact center was made on a different frequency which was successful. The pilot requested to pick up an IFR clearance. The controlled seemed to be distracted and the radio communications were poor as well. Finally a clearance was given and the pilot asked me to write it down; which I did. I wrote cleared as filed via sky VOR; 5;000 ft; contact departure on 132.5; squawk XXXX. There was a garbled transmission and a comment from ATC that was not understood. Pilot then ask me to read back what I had written down. I read back what I wrote; and ATC said read back correct. There was other radio traffic on the frequency combined with poor aircraft radio operation. We both thought that there was possibly something more in the transmission from ATC that was not readable. The pilot then ask ATC if our read back was correct and that we had thought there was more to the ATC transmission. The controller said again read back was correct. A rather heated radio exchange ensued between the pilot and controller as to our position. We were told to reset transponder. Transponder was recycled several times; still no radar contact. Radio communication again was very poor. ATC was able to give us a new frequency via a relay with another aircraft. It was all very confusing. I think now that ATC thought the initial radio call was from the ground. I'm not sure that is even possible from that remote field. When we were airborne ATC did not see the beacon code we were assigned. They did I'm sure see our aircraft though on radar. This likely caused much concern for ATC as we were flying with an inoperative transponder on a flight path that was filed as IFR. Once we all realized the transponder was inoperative after the annual and ATC was given a position report; things went well. The transponder was inoperative the rest of the flight. Radio communications were also poor. The primary communication radio was part of the recently installed GPS/navigation system. The new communication radio had issues since the install. It was not my call as I was not PIC on this flight; however my personal minimums were out of my comfort zone. Thankfully we were in clear VMC the entire flight. Always best to be sure all equipment is operational before flying an IFR flight plan. That's no time to discover equipment issues. Always be wary of everything in an aircraft that has just come out of maintenance. Assume nothing. I have found ATC to be a professional; competent asset. However in this case the exchanges between controller and pilot were less than professional.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Pilot asked to fly with a friend to another airport for an annual inspection and install of a new GPS/NAV system had multiple difficulties on the return leg when it was discovered that the radios are poor and the transponder was inoperative.

Narrative: I was asked to help with an annual inspection as I'm building time towards the A&P. I was in the aircraft as a passenger when it was flown cross country on an IFR flight plan for the annual. All went well on the flight and the annual was completed three days later. The pilot; and aircraft owner; was a newly rated instrument pilot and wanted to depart on an IFR flight plan. The weather was clear along the entire flight path. I recommended several times that it would be best to fly the aircraft near the airport for a while to be sure all was working well. An IFR flight plan had already been filed; the details of which I did not know. The pilot decided on taxi to stay in the pattern and do one landing before proceeding enroute. How this affected our proposed IFR departure time I do not know as I did not have any flight plan information. It was agreed that I would write down the EGT and CHT readings during the climb and cruise as the engine instruments were all on the passenger side; and an EGT probe was replaced during the annual inspection. I ask several times if the pilot needed any help with the radios. I was told 'no I've got this'. During this portion of flight the pilot attempted to contact Center with no success. We had just departed. Another attempt to contact Center was made on a different frequency which was successful. The pilot requested to pick up an IFR clearance. The Controlled seemed to be distracted and the radio communications were poor as well. Finally a clearance was given and the pilot asked me to write it down; which I did. I wrote cleared as filed via SKY VOR; 5;000 FT; contact Departure on 132.5; squawk XXXX. There was a garbled transmission and a comment from ATC that was not understood. Pilot then ask me to read back what I had written down. I read back what I wrote; and ATC said read back correct. There was other radio traffic on the frequency combined with poor aircraft radio operation. We both thought that there was possibly something more in the transmission from ATC that was not readable. The pilot then ask ATC if our read back was correct and that we had thought there was more to the ATC transmission. The Controller said again read back was correct. A rather heated radio exchange ensued between the pilot and Controller as to our position. We were told to reset transponder. Transponder was recycled several times; still no radar contact. Radio communication again was very poor. ATC was able to give us a new frequency via a relay with another aircraft. It was all very confusing. I think now that ATC thought the initial radio call was from the ground. I'm not sure that is even possible from that remote field. When we were airborne ATC did not see the beacon code we were assigned. They did I'm sure see our aircraft though on radar. This likely caused much concern for ATC as we were flying with an inoperative transponder on a flight path that was filed as IFR. Once we all realized the transponder was inoperative after the annual and ATC was given a position report; things went well. The transponder was inoperative the rest of the flight. Radio communications were also poor. The primary communication radio was part of the recently installed GPS/NAV system. The new communication radio had issues since the install. It was not my call as I was not PIC on this flight; however my personal minimums were out of my comfort zone. Thankfully we were in clear VMC the entire flight. Always best to be sure all equipment is operational before flying an IFR flight plan. That's no time to discover equipment issues. Always be wary of everything in an aircraft that has just come out of maintenance. Assume nothing. I have found ATC to be a professional; competent asset. However in this case the exchanges between controller and pilot were less than professional.

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.