Big Pistons
I don't think that the Piper or Cessna test pilots are the only input to the POH, I would guess that the company lawyers have quite a bit to say on the subject and most of what lawyers say is about protection for the client, not for the protection of the pilot.
A quick assessment of the situation is far better that rushing blindly into a situation that you could have prevented by a small amount of thought. I don't advocate keeping the electrics running for more that about 60 seconds, 30 seconds of thinking and trouble shooting and 30 seconds for the mayday call & 7700 on the transponder. At no time did I say reset any circuit breakers, I said TRIPP the CB's of suspect system, after all it could be a problem with the CB it's self.
Big end bob the electrical cable fitted to aircraft should be of a much higher quality than that fitted to cars and one of the requirements is for the cable not to support combustion, I doubt if an aircraft would catch fire in such a dramatic way as your car unless you did nothing about the problems that were becoming evident. The higher quality construction of aircraft electrical systems won't prevent a fire but it will give you more time to do something about it.
Last edited by A and C; 19th Jul 2012 at 15:09.