Pilot deviation
 

Asked to call xxxx center for possible pilot deviation.hand off from 1 freq to the next didnt go well .recollecting my thoughts i believe what happened was i inadvertently deselect the audio and was distracted around the time of the freq changE which apparently i did acknowledge. When i realized what happened i scrambled to get the comms back,i moved my hand towards the control head on the vhf and thought "volume" i turned the knob and i actually changed the freq not volume now i had lost the freq and the previous one was 2 far away.fortunately the freq i dialed in was an active freq and i was able to regain comms ( 17 minutes off comms according to the supervisor,we called from the aircraft) we both filed a NASA
He said he had to send the report to the next level.
Is 17 minutes an awful long time? This is not the same as 1 hour.

17 mins is a Loooooooooong time for ATC, not for us unless you need something.
ATC/FAA have been really finicky about "pilot deviations" lately. I had an alt deviation (220ft) about a year ago.
Tulsa dept made a huge hullabaloo about and wanted to go all the way up. By the end of it all I spent time on the phone with our POI and a Letter of Warning from it.

I personally wouldn't sweat it.

Are you saying its not long time enough for them to consider it serious ?

Serious is in the eyes of the man at the scope or supv desk.
5 mins in SLC center vs 5 mins in NYC center are two entirely different things.
What center were y'all talking too. I once flew from the first FTW Center freq south of DFW 133.3 all the way south of SAT cause we flew out of the coverage and weren't handed off.
We caught on when I could hear other planes but not center.
We found the freq from the charts and all was fine.

Time to get smart on "Pilot's Bill of Rights".. You are entitled to a copy of all the ATC data if you request it. Go to FAA.GOV for info.
I guess the big question will be, what did ATC clear you for when you were "absent"? This is why most air carriers listen on 121.5 on COM 2 just in case there is a unknown problem with Com 1.

We as a corporate dept also monitor 121.5 on COM 2 but I will say all the annoying chatter gets pretty obnoxious at times. We've bee known to turn it off at times.

Remember, the high charts have freqs posted on there for different sectors. If you don't want to go ask on 121.5, you can always look on the chart.

Easier and quicker to go on 121.5 and ask.

I tried the freq i was on ,i would have gone to 121.5 in the event i couldn't pick anybody up. There were no separation issues that i know of ,so essentially my question was ..is 15 min a very long time ? Would it be treated the same as an hour lets say?

The answer to your Q depends on what you may have "missed" when you were not on freq. ATC could have issued you a Vector, Altitude Change, Etc.. If you did not "comply" with the ATC instructions, based on something you missed hearing, then that could be contrary to 91 regs. Did you squawk 7600? If you did, this could help in your favor.

So you really need to obtain a copy of ALL ATC data. Remember that this data (recordings) is only kept for a finite period of time. So recommend you request the data ASAP.