PilotDAR
This incident is a great reminder that failures often happen at inconvenient moments, requiring thoughful decisions.
I once lost both radio boxes on 4 mile final ("under a continue approach" clearance), #2 to an aircraft clearly in sight, with 4 or 5 VFR aircraft following downwind, on base and on long final and also an instrument aircraft under vectors for the ILS.
This was at a large international airport with ATC and secondary radar.
Having a couple of minutes to think about things, I watched the aircraft in front land and clear, then decided to land after and vacate ASAP. (Having set the transponder to 7600 on final, although it was also u/s as I discovered later.)
I went to the tower to pay the landing fee, somewhat nervously, as I was not sure how my decision would be received, to be reassured by the staff that the controller was very happy I did not start flying around the busy pattern waiting for clearance by lights - under the circumstance we both preferred me to be on the ground and out of the equation.
On a quiet day, I would have followed the standard approach to lost comms, gone around and then waited for the tower to clear me by light.
I also bought a hand held radio, although that was bolting the stable door
after the occupant had long gone
