Bell Helicopter 407
Flight Crew Commercial
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Troubleshooting
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
Airspace Structure; Human Factors; Procedure
We were on an IFT [Inter-Facility Transfer] from [Hospital A] to [Hospital B] in Las Vegas; NV and were beginning the return leg. After I started up and listened to ATIS and was preparing for takeoff the tower frequency was completely garbled as is often the case. (We sometimes can and sometimes can't make radio contact from the helipad). I took off expecting to make immediate contact with ATC. The radio was extremely busy with incoming tour traffic and I had to wait a moment to make a call. When I did the controller did not respond to me but to another aircraft. When I was able to establish communications I had traveled approximately 2.5 miles to the east of [Hospital B]. Several moments later I was contacted by another controller asking what had happened and when I described the events as I just have he said that was unacceptable and gave me a phone number to call. Which I did upon landing back [at Hospital A] forty four minutes after takeoff from [Hospital B]. The person I talked to asked for all of my information and said I was being submitted to a QA Board for a possible deviation.I understand the rules of Class B Airspace but every hospital that we land at in the LAS surface area except [Hospital B] requires us to be airborne to establish communications. [Hospital B] is intermittent; sometimes you can get them on the deck and sometimes you can't. I have been operating this way without incident for the last 2.5 years. Generally it's not too busy to establish communications quickly and there haven't been any issues for me thus far. If there is another procedure ATC would like us to follow I would be happy to comply.Possible different procedure for contacting ATC when communications from the ground or helipad aren't possible.
Bell 407 pilot reported an airspace violation due to busy frequency.