Small Aircraft; Low Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 127; Flight Crew Total 1044; Flight Crew Type 440
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Aircraft; Human Factors
I was conducting a ferry flight with another pilot on Aircraft X. The other pilot came with me in order to begin familiarizing himself with the airplane and its systems; particularly with the G1000 system as he had no previous experience operating a glass cockpit. While enroute I was providing some instruction [of] the various aspects of the G1000; including the radio. We were operating on an IFR flight plan and maintaining assigned altitude; but at one point I realized that a significant amount of time had elapsed since I had heard from ATC. I discovered that at some point; the radio volume had been turned down. I quickly turned up the radio and reestablished radio contact. The Controller informed me that he had been trying to get a hold of me and that he had to re-route some traffic in a MOA that I had flown through. He didn't tell me whether this resulted in an actual loss of separation; but either way I ended up flying through an active MOA while on an IFR flight plan and did not hear any instructions to descend below it. While retrieving my briefing; I saw that the MOA along in my route was active beginning at 8;000 feet. I filed for 11;000 expecting the Controller to descend me below it if necessary. Obviously; that did not happen in the NORDO situation.A lot factors played into this situation. First; I recently conducted several flights through very quiet airspace (especially after COVID) during which I would go 30 minutes or more before hearing anyone talk on the radio; whether to me or someone else. This made the silence a bit more normalized.Second; I was expecting ATC to keep me out of any airspace I needed to avoid. During previous flights; I would normally confirm with ATC that any restricted areas along my route were cold before flying through them; even while IFR. In this situation; I think I became overly reliant on ATC to keep up my situational awareness while instructing. I also didn't give as much consideration to the MOA as I could have since flying through an active one is more common than other types of special use airspace.Third; simply dealing with the student/pilot added to my workload. Had I not been working with the student; this probably would not have happened. I honestly can't remember now who turned down the radio; but either way; the situation would not have happened if training wasn't part of the mission on this flight.Of course; this simply comes down to a situational awareness issue. While I'm not a brand new instructor; I recognize that I always need to continue practicing and refining the art of teaching while dealing with the challenges of operating an aircraft. I constantly teach my students to aviate; navigate; and then communicate. In this case; I simply let the instructing take away from those priorities. Still; here are some other practical steps to take to prevent this in the future: Avoiding any special use airspace when flying with students unless the lesson specifically involves dealing with such airspace. While the primary purpose of this flight was not training; having the pilot/student on board was the primary factor contributing to the incident. While it may not have prevented the NORDO situation; everything could have been made less serious by simply filing around or below the MOA.Prior to this flight; we had covered some ground material concerning the G1000 and Aircraft X; but we never spent any time in the airplane on the ground. When I train students on the G1000; I normally spend at least an hour going over the system while the aircraft is on the ground powered by a GPU. We didn't do that in this situation because the primary mission was ferrying; not training. In the future though; I'll familiarize the student as much as possible with the system on the ground in all situations before flying.
GA pilot reported becoming NORDO and flying through an MOA.