Day 4 ( 76.1 TT, 1.2 MET )

I usually don't post every day, but today is of note. Today was my first multi-engine flight and first in-flight "incident". We took off, turned south and followed the coast. The plane climbs like a beast and I was "behind" the plane for a little while. Did some steep turns, basic stuff. My instructor then proceeded to do an engine out demo. Cut the mixture, prop is windmilling, secure engine, feather, etc. It looks really strange when the prop stops in the air. Anyway, during the restart I heard a popping noise, it was a breaker. Lost the transponder and comm 2. When the breaker was reset, thick, pink colored smoke started coming out of the panel, somewhere behind the transponder. The instructor quickly ran the electrical fire checklist while I flew the plane, and shut off anything we did not need. Then we turned back to the airport. Landed in some moderate rain. Needless to say, I was happy and grateful to be on the ground. Today I got a taste of how old these aircraft really are...