Avionics failure yesterday...

Would welcome any comments on the experience.

I think you did fine.

You had a landing you could walk away from, and the airplane is
reusable.

When it appeared there was no real smoke and the smell
disappated I tried cycling the master. Nothing bad, but no audio panel
(completely dead) and thus no radios.

At first I read this as the master, but I think you meant the avionics
master. Did any radio lights come on? Did the transponder do its
transponder blikey thing?

I had an alternator failure once, at night over water coming back from
Block Island with a full passenger load (four in all). In retrospect I
should have tried cycling the master (I may have actually tried that; I
don't remember). My first response was to turn things off to conserve
the battery, and to reassure the passengers that the engine would keep
running without electricity and we were perfectly fine. I considered
what drew the most juice and what gave me the most bang for my buck, and
settled on one comm radio, the strobes (which I later turned off), and
the transponder. I told ATC (I had flight following) what had happened
and what I was doing, they were fine with that. ("are you declaring an
emergency?" "no, not at this time").

The front seat passenger startd to feel a little queasy, so I managed to
get the air vent pointing right at him, which helped a lot.

They asked my intentions, which were to continue on to Danbury, and that
I'd be turning the transmitter off. I remember they asked other
questions, getting my response via squawking ident on the transponder,
then halfway across the Sound I turned the transponder off, figuring
they had me on primary, and knew where I was going anyway. It was a
clear and a million night, so I flew to Danbury, turned on the radio to
contact the tower and landed uneventfully.

My friends were very impressed. I guess it doesn't take all that much,
but knowing that the engine would keep turning is key.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
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