Lost Comms vs Out of Radio Coverage

[Flying Penguin]

Hi all,

An issue for me arose a few nights ago as I was flying IFR into Lincoln County (1L1) from the direction of Mormon Mesa (MMM) when I suddenly realised that I wasn't hearing anything. As I was nearing my destination anyway, I squawked Lost Comms, made a couple of blind calls and descended into the field (which is uncontrolled).

Following a landing and a quick break I climbed out VFR and headed back towards MMM and as I neared it, the radio came back to life and I realised what had happened, I must have got outside the coverage of the LA Center frequency I was on, and being in a lowly PA-24 I wasn't particularly high, so that shouldn't have been too much of a surprise.

So... My question is, if you leave radio range of a station without being handed off to another, or before frequency change is approved, and you can't get hold of a following station at your current altitude, but your radio is otherwise fine, should you follow lost comms procedures or would that be overreacting? It is probably only really applicable to small aircraft at low altitude in remote areas where the destination may be a substantial distance off an airway, but it isn't something I've been able to find any concrete guidance on.

Cheers,

Jamie

[Kyle.Sanders]

This may not answer your question about lost coms but may have prevented a need for it:

Look for the "postage stamps" in the low-enroute charts for that area. (Images attached)

The closest one I see is the ZLC Wilson Creek one. In real life I would have contacted them for frequency guidance.

Second to that is one just would of KLAS... Vegas frequencies.

[Keith Smith]

Kyle, that would be salt lake center which we don't currently support.

guard, 121.50, if no luck then use lost conms procs, the first of which would be to land vfr if possible.

I'll look into this to see if it's something we need to look into regarding radio range.

[Kyle.Sanders]

Kyle, that would be salt lake center which we don't currently support.

That's what I mean by my "in real life I would..." Then I have the secondary option. I should've been more clear in my post. Sorry.