Small Transport
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 11.0
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Airspace Structure; Human Factors; Procedure
Aircraft X departed on an IFR flight plan. The aircraft was issued an instruction to fly runway heading for radar vectors and to climb and maintain three thousand. Per local SOP; these are standard instructions for our runway configuration and for the type of IFR clearance that was filed by the pilot.  The aircraft was cleared for takeoff and acknowledged a frequency change from the Tower Controller to contact departure; fly runway heading and climb to 3;000 feet and leveled off. Aircraft X  did not check in with departure until he was approximately 18 miles west of the airport. By this time he had entered a 3;800 feet. Minimum Vectoring Altitude (MVA). Many methods were used in an effort to gain communications with the aircraft. I made multiple calls on several frequencies to include guard frequency. Tower was advised and attempted to contact the aircraft with no luck.At 18 miles when communications resumed; I advised the aircraft that he was in a higher MVA and started his climb to 8;000 feet. He advised that he was still runway heading. I told him that I was aware of this but I needed him to climb above the MVA before I would issue him a turn on course. He climbed to 8;000 feet and was issued a turn of 140 when he was above 3;800 feet. I asked the pilot if he was experiencing communication issues with the aircraft. He responded in the negative. I advised him several calls were made to him on multiple frequencies and guard. He stated that he never got switched to departure. Further review of the audio of the event illustrated that the pilot was given a frequency change from Tower to departure; which he acknowledged. No other aircraft were having issues hearing the departure frequencies.My role in the event was that of the departure Controller. I do not know what led to the event or why it happened. We advised the aircraft to expect final altitude 10 minutes after departure on IFR clearances. We used to issue 5 minutes after departure. Perhaps we may want to go back to 5 minutes after departure. This may get NORDO aircraft climbing sooner so MVA violations don't become as much of a factor.
SBA Departure Controller reported an aircraft did not contact them in a timely manner and flew below the Minimum Vectoring Altitude.