"Steven P. McNicoll" writes:

Second, what bizarre failure causes me to lose both of my completely
independent transceivers, and my transponder, but leaves me fully confident
of the continued flawless operation of my other avionics?

My 196 has a redundant power supply? Besides, you might not be fully
confident of the continued flawless operation of your other avionics,
but they're the best you've got.

I'm familiar with what the FARs and the AIM say. What I say comes from 20
years experience as an air traffic controller, Center, TRACON, and tower.
You can believe what I tell you, or you can believe your fantasies, I don't
care which.

Have you ever dealt with IFR NORDOs? When I was working on my rating,
the attitude in the school was "partial panel is important, but the
chances of that happening are low, and your chances of surviving one
are even lower, so don't worry about it too much beyond the
checkride." 70 logged hours later, I had a gyro failure in IMC, didn't
break out until 50' above MDA and lived to tell the tale. I haven't
lost radios so far, but ever since that incident, I'm curious about
"improbable failures" and how frequent they are.

That said, I hear what you are saying about dwelling too much on
developing procedures for infrequent, freak occurrences.

I'm curious, you're saying everything is shut down until the NORDO
lands. Is there a good reason pilots are taught one set of procedures,
while ATC follow another?

Ari.