Pilot reported cross-channeling transmissions between comm 1 and 2 radios.

Attributes
ACN	1761180
Time
Date	202009
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft Low Wing 2 Eng Retractable Gear
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 1 Flight Crew Total 8676 Flight Crew Type 1300
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

I had not flown for two and half months so it was time to refresh. I was flying with a safety pilot; practicing instrument approaches and takeoffs and landings at ZZZ1 and ZZZ2. At the time of the flight I did not realize this until after I sat down in the evening to relax at home. I recall after startup that I set my audio panel incorrectly and was then transmitting on my number one communication radio which was set to ZZZ center and my number two radio set to CTAF. The mike button set for comm 1 and the speaker set to comm 2. So I was cross-channeling my transmissions. During this time we did not have the need to speak with any other pilots in the area and therefore I did not check my audio panel. I see that I was out of my element and rusty because usually I am checking squelch and verifying my transmissions with the radios when keying the push to talk button with the radio that I am using. I guess also when the controller notifies a pilot of a communication error; we pilots tend to use them as a crutch to our errors and then make the correction. But we need to verify proper radios on our own before transmitting.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot reported cross-channeling transmissions between Comm 1 and 2 radios.

Narrative: I had not flown for two and half months so it was time to refresh. I was flying with a safety pilot; practicing instrument approaches and takeoffs and landings at ZZZ1 and ZZZ2. At the time of the flight I did not realize this until after I sat down in the evening to relax at home. I recall after startup that I set my audio panel incorrectly and was then transmitting on my number one communication radio which was set to ZZZ Center and my number two radio set to CTAF. The mike button set for comm 1 and the speaker set to comm 2. So I was cross-channeling my transmissions. During this time we did not have the need to speak with any other pilots in the area and therefore I did not check my audio panel. I see that I was out of my element and rusty because usually I am checking squelch and verifying my transmissions with the radios when keying the push to talk button with the radio that I am using. I guess also when the Controller notifies a pilot of a communication error; we pilots tend to use them as a crutch to our errors and then make the correction. But we need to verify proper radios on our own before transmitting.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.