For Ian Crowe:

I have seen an instrument panel sitting on the wing of a Glassair completely operational using a removable harness with all gold connectors (from RAYCHEM, I believe).   Unfortunately, the builder subsequently moved the aircraft to Florida before I could get any info on the performance of this "connected" panel.

In my many years as an EE with Underwriters Laboratories in Santa Clara, I have seen wiring with connectors of every type.  I can vouch for the old saying that "the fault is usually  in the termination, rarely in the wiring.

Personally, I have tried to make all the terminations in my machine as permanent as possible since I consider the (aircraft) environment pretty hostile to connectors.  On the other hand, the folks in the space industry seem to have a pretty good handle on this problem although I dont think my budget could afford their brand of connectors.

Regards, Bill Hogarty