Blog post #2

Safety Brief of In-Flight Electrical Fires provided a better understanding of what can happen in a short period of time if simple odors or abnormal electrical failures are ignored while in flight. These small but yet large indicators could lead quickly to disaster if unattended.
What struck me as interesting is the need and know how of trouble shooting the problem in the event you have no way of quickly landing the aircraft (e.g. IFR enroute). The Electrical Fire Reenergize Attempt checklist can be a very useful tool, once practiced and understood to full extent. Something I believe we all over look as students while flying.
What is a short circuit? The safety brief defines this as “electricity is flowing along a different path than one intended”. If an unfortunate break in a wire component occurs, the electricity will still flow out and jump or arc to another part of the aircraft. Resulting a very efficient way to start an in-flight fire, especially with any type of aircraft fluids lingering about.
The safety brief hits all major points on executing a decision when an electrical fire could be present. Knowing the boxed items in the emergency checklist by memorization is key to stopping a strange odor from becoming a hazardous situation. Once a fire is secure, both our POH and checklist go far in-depth to determining where such an occurrence stemmed from. Being able to operate with the least amount of components turned off for a safe landing.
The type of flying we do as students is obviously quite different then what the article intended. Most of the safety brief focused on trouble shooting and how to accomplish this quickly. When in reality if an electrical fire should arise when solo, is to quickly execute the emergency procedures and find the nearest airport to land. Always remembering to make accurate radio call outs before shutting the radio master off in the event something should unfortunately happen.