Hello!
Have I just been unlucky or are aging light aircraft becoming more liable to electrical faults (aging looms, pitot wiring etc)?
I think electrical problems are very, very common in (light, but not only) aircraft. The older they are, the more problems there are. I have had electrical smoke once (short circuit in the windshield heater of a C421), two complete electrical failues (one of them in a twin with two working alternators, but a failed paralleling unit) and countless failures of single COM and NAV units. Therefore I never ever get on board a light aircraft without my (charged!) handheld transceiver with headset adapter and a portable GPS unit. This is because I mostly fly on light aircraft as an IFR instrutor and will encounter those failures with high probability in controlled airspace and in IMC.
Greetings, Max