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What about calling the tower landline? That seems a little difficult unless you have an autopilot on board. Then again, program in some contact info in your phone and do the Siri/Google voice prompt for "dial KSAN tower" and get connected. If you had an aviation headset with Bluetooth, that might work even better.

Seriously, is a phone call to the destination tower acceptable solution to lost comms?

In VFR conditions, it might make sense to try to obtain the tower phone number. In IMC with lost comms, don't even bother. You might not even be low enough to get reception. Just fly the plane. It is faster to just get to a segment of an approach and fly it. ATC will move people out of the way anyway.

I'd love to hear Harold's thoughts on 91.185, particularly when flying /A.

Cell phones stop working for the most part starting at 2,000ft AGL and up. Not really a viable choice. Way too much going on up there to be dealing with dropped calls and google searches. IMO.

Two way lost comm is incredibly rare. When you consider that you have 3 radios which can receive transmissions (2 com and a nav, typically), it's statistically unlikely that you'll get totally knocked out, short of an audio panel failure or complete failure of the electrical system. ATC is going to give you a wide berth and will clear other IFR traffic out of the way. Get to an IAF, shoot an approach and get the plane down. ATC is not what keeps you alive when you're flying IFR, it's the knowledge of how to fly in IMC, how to stay clear of terrain, and how to shoot an approach that counts. You talk to ATC during normal ops largely for separation. Losing comms just means they'll have to keep you separated without you being involved in the process, and they are completely able to do that.

So, losing comms is theoretically a huge inconvenience, but shouldn't be life threatening.

I lost comms once a few years ago. I owned a Cessna Cardinal RG for about 8 years that I sold last summer. The alternator failed and unfortunately my battery didn't last but a few minutes despite shedding electrical load. I was in VMC fortunately, but within Charlie airspace. Approach told me they weren't picking up my transponder. I recycled, they picked it up, then it went out again. I replied back, but they didn't hear my transmission, then I looked at my ammeter and discovered the problem. I ran the checklist and recycled the breaker, but it was done. So I shed all the electrical I could and turned off the radios too. When I turned them back on I had enough juice to make one transmission to ATC that I had an alternator out / total electrical failure and was heading back to Felts (a Class D). Then the radios died again. Fortunately I was able to reach into my flight bag and grab my iCom handheld and plug my headset into it. It didn't work worth a darn. I could hear, but didn't have the signal strength to transmit, and I was only about 8 miles from KGEG, where ATC was transmitting from. But . . . I could hear them and they said, "Cardinal 1563H, if you are listening, you are cleared to land at Felts field runway 22R". That was pretty awesome. Then, as I got within about a mile of Felts, I tried the handheld again and tower could hear me loud and clear. He told me to enter a right downwind for 22L, cleared to land. On downwind, I ran my pre-landing check and dropped my gear. What! No noise!. I forgot, my gear pump is electric. Sh!t. Out with with hand pump - about 50 pumps to get them down as I'm downwind and turning base, but no lights to verify they are down. Another call to tower to ask him to check my nose wheel (I was able to see my mains). They saw them all down. I land without incident. Interesting flight. Glad it wasn't IMC, but technically it shouldn't have been any more of an issue if it was.

Great story!

Keith Smith wrote: ATC is not what keeps you alive when you're flying IFR, it's the knowledge of how to fly in IMC, how to stay clear of terrain, and how to shoot an approach that counts.

This. Times a million.