Date: 201512
Local time of day: 1201-1800
Location: BUR.Airport, CA
Flight conditions: VMC
Weather elements / visibility: 10
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: M-20 B/C Ranger
Operator: Personal
Operating under: Part 91
Flight plan: None
Mission: Personal
Flight phase: Climb
Airspace: Class C BUR
ATC / advisory: Tower BUR
Aircraft component: Air/Ground Communication
Component problem: Malfunctioning
Reporter organization: Personal
Reporter function: Single Pilot
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight
Result: Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Aircraft Equipment Problem Dissipated
Contributing factors: Aircraft; Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure; ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings
Primary problem: Ambiguous

Narrative: Flight was from VNY east bound. VNY tower cleared me for takeoff on runway 34L and told me to fly straight out and BUR tower will call my turn east. I took off and flew straight out and after a while I asked if I should switch over to BUR tower so they could call the turn. I asked this because I felt I was a bit too far north. VNY tower told me to stay with them for a bit and they would hand me off shortly. After a minute or so they asked me to contact BUR tower for the transition through their airspace.I switched over to BUR tower and checked in and told them I wanted to transition through their airspace and was waiting for the turn instructions. At this time I had a lot of radio interference and I think I missed an instruction and/or a squawk assignment. I asked for repeated instructions and I could not hear them even with a squelched out setting on the radio. I switched to my second radio and it was no better. Somewhere in all this communication I thought I heard them say to fly to a highway intersection that I thought was off my right side about a 060 degree heading. I told them that that was the heading I will fly. This occurred just south of the VALEY waypoint. All of a sudden I was out of the area of interference and I could hear other airplanes and the controller. I was instructed to fly a 120 heading and this would keep me out of the WHP Class D airspace. I am not sure if he boosted his signal or if I just happened to fly out of the interference area.I flew the 120 heading and as a flew I saw on my iPad with foreflight that I was about a 1/8 mile southwest of the WHP class D dotted blue line. I know that there can be a difference between what a controller sees on his screen and what I see on mine. As far as I am concerned I did not fly into the WHP class D but I am not sure what a controller may have seen with a little bit of map shift. I saved a screen shot with my iPad of our position. We were not in the class D space.I don't know what can prevent this. Maybe there is a dead spot near that area? My radios worked just fine on a 22 hour trip just a couple of weeks ago and they worked fine the rest of the day with SoCal and other facilities. Of course it would be nice of the VNY controller could just give us a heading to fly after departure and then make a hand off to BUR tower with information forwarded but it seems like they don't like taking the time to do that. It is standard for them to have us call BUR tower on our own and explain what we want. Also it would be nice if the BUR tower would just give out a heading instead of assigning freeway intersections; I am not too familiar with all the freeways....But that is not really the issue here; I think it was just some sort of radio interference/dead zone.




Synopsis: M20 pilot departed VNY on Runway 34L and questioned the departure instructions issued by the Tower when radio interference made communication with BUR Tower difficult. The interference suddenly disappeared and clear instructions were received from BUR Tower; but the reporter believed he came very close to WHP Class D airspace.