Hey,
I have what might be a dumb question, but I'm OK with asking it.
I went to fly a coworkers airplane today, a 1979 Cessna 172N (I have flown it many times), and when I flipped the master switch as part of my preflight inspection (fuel guages, nav/beacon lights, flaps, etc), I heard complete silence. The electric gyro in the turn coorindator never spun up. I never noticed if the red flag indicating a failure/power was on or not.
If I remember right, this is not a required piece of equipment for a daytime VFR flight. I let my mind wonder, and started thinking; was this an electrical problem in the turn coordinator, or was the problem further upstream? I didn't want to take off anyway and end up with an electrical system failure/fire due to a short somewhere.
My question is, did I let my mind get the best of me, or did I make a smart decision?