I'm wondering if the lack of actual problems with, for example, the two switch approach many of us use compared with all the bad things that COULD happen has to do with the circumstances in which we actually use the switches.

I've only been spurred to switch batteries a few times over the years (except to check the voltage). My radio display starts blinking when the voltage gets low. That's not so useful because the radio is mounted low and partially behind the control stick, but I did see it once. My ClearNav vario has a low-voltage warning setting that I think is set at 11.5 v. So between those two devices, I'm fairly sure I would see the need to switch away from an unexpectedly discharging battery before the voltage dropped precipitously (recognizing you don't get much warning for LiFePO4 types). And my backup battery, a gel cell pack all the way back in the tail, usually reads 12 point something anyway. So maybe there would be a 1 volt delta between the two batteries in a most likely failure mode--which hardly ever occurs? Would that be likely to cause a big surge of current from one battery into another?

I don't have a master switch--I use the two battery switches in lieu of that. But normally switching on a battery is the first thing I do and switching it off is the last thing; i.e., there's almost never much of a load across the switch contacts when they separate or meet.

I'm not saying bad things couldn't happen. But the fact that few if any have reported such things might be because they seldom occur in our standard operating mode.

Waiting anxiously for the experts to weigh in. This is more entertaining than arguing about the Coronavirus.

Chip Bearden
JB