B777-200
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Aircraft Equipment Problem Dissipated
Aircraft; Environment - Non Weather Related; Weather
We [were] flying a polar route and [were] not able to give the required position report passing the fix named RESUM to GANDER RADIO on the assigned HF frequencies. Multiple attempts were made to all possible ATC agencies as well as air-to-air relay attempts with other aircraft and SATCOM. CPDLC does not work at this fix and it is my belief that SOLAR activity at the time was disrupting HF communications in the vicinity of RESUM. Eventually contact was made with the Russian controller passing RAMEL and dispatch on SATCOM. A crew change was also happening just after this fix and we all were working to make contact with ATC.Do not fly polar routes especially when there is solar activity. Also that evening the solar report from dispatch said nothing greater than G2 but my independent NOAA space weather report said G3; so hopefully the pilots are getting accurate info from dispatch.
Returning from break; FB and FC reported to me that they were having trouble getting hold of Gander Oceanic for position report at RESUM. They had tried various HF freqs; Gander; Commercial Radio; and Magadan with no luck due to connectivity issues (solar wx) also tried relay on VHF 121.5 [and] 123.45. No SATCOM or CPDLC. Finally got hold of Gander (HF 8891) after RAMEL and Magadan on SATCOM for POS report. Dispatch called us with instructions to call Anchorage when we landed to discuss possible pilot deviation due to missing position report at RESUM. I called and talked to [the] OPs manager. We discussed event and he said it would be reviewed.
B777-200 flight crew on an international polar route reported they were unable to communicate their position probably because of solar activity.