Big pistons
I think you have taken a very literal view to this thread, most of the people posting on this thread have taken the view to reply along the line of the developing situation and have given answers that reflect the action that they would take from the first hint of an unusual smell and the actions that they would take as the situation developed.
You have taken the view that the situation has already reached the large quantitys of smoke and may be flames and for this switching off the master switch is the first thing to do. The fact is that electrical problems don't usually go from nothing to full blown fire without some other form of indication.
I don't think that 30 seconds of investigation of an unusual smell followed by a distress call & 7700 transponder selection is a reckless course of action, followed by a structued electrical power down. If the situation is rapidly getting worse then of course the electrical master switch must go off at once. A low timer reading your posts might well get the impression that at the first hint of an unusual smell the electrical system should be switched off and creating an emergency that never existed. After all that smell could be the smoke from the power station that he had just flown over.
As to the state of pilot training in the UK I would rate it no better or worse than in North America, Australia, NZ & Northern Europe, all these country's have almost identical accident rates with the UK having weather that is less predictable than most.
What I am sure of is that a very low time PPL who has done a panic electrical shut down and now has the wife & kids in a state of very high state anxiety is not going to be very well placed to land the aircraft ( possibly flap less and with a manual gear extension ) what ever country he is flying in.
Last edited by A and C; 21st Jul 2012 at 09:08.