Grumman AA5 pilot experiences a puff of smoke from the glare shield during approach and apparent rad...

Narrative:

Per tower request; I reported three miles from the airport. I was instructed to enter downwind for runway xx. I then had a puff of smoke come up from my glare shield above the instrument panel. I attempted to contact tower with no joy as I started going through my emergency procedure for electrical fire. Smoke dissipated but I was unsure if there was an actual electrical fire. I squawked 7700 and made a call in the blind on guard 121.5 declaring an emergency and that I was continuing approach to land runway xx. I received a green light to land from tower on base to final. I continued to receive light signal guidance from tower to parking. I contacted tower by cell phone from parking. I gave details of what had occurred. I had an a&P/ia look at the plane that afternoon. It was discovered a capacitor had shorted out in my audio com selector panel. He determined that the panel would still select the proper com and transmit; it would not however receive through the headsets. The radios were functional and transmissions could be received over the aircraft speaker system. He released the plane for flight. I returned home the next day. The flight was uneventful. The audio com panel is being removed and sent out for repair.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Grumman AA5 pilot experiences a puff of smoke from the glare shield during approach and apparent radio failure. An emergency is declared in the blind and a green light is received from Tower for landing and taxi.

Narrative: Per Tower request; I reported three miles from the airport. I was instructed to enter downwind for Runway XX. I then had a puff of smoke come up from my glare shield above the instrument panel. I attempted to contact Tower with no joy as I started going through my emergency procedure for electrical fire. Smoke dissipated but I was unsure if there was an actual electrical fire. I squawked 7700 and made a call in the blind on guard 121.5 declaring an emergency and that I was continuing approach to land runway XX. I received a green light to land from Tower on base to final. I continued to receive light signal guidance from Tower to parking. I contacted Tower by cell phone from parking. I gave details of what had occurred. I had an A&P/IA look at the plane that afternoon. It was discovered a capacitor had shorted out in my audio com selector panel. He determined that the panel would still select the proper com and transmit; it would not however receive through the headsets. The radios were functional and transmissions could be received over the aircraft speaker system. He released the plane for flight. I returned home the next day. The flight was uneventful. The audio com panel is being removed and sent out for repair.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	916799
Time
Date	201010
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cheetah Tiger Traveler AA5 Series
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Air/Ground Communication
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 50 Flight Crew Total 4500 Flight Crew Type 60
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

Grumman AA5 pilot experiences a puff of smoke from the glare shield during approach and apparent radio failure. An emergency is declared in the blind and a green light is received from tower for landing and taxi.