A PA28's electrical system malfunctioned damaging the GPS which caused the pilot to deviate from a VFR track and stray into special use airspace because he did not have immediate access to his paper charts.

Narrative

I was bringing home a newly acquired aircraft equipped with a Garmin 696 GPS. I experienced an electrical failure due to a bad connection of the avionics bus feed. The voltage spike disarmed and damaged the GPS. This could not have happened at a worse time as the airspace in this area has very narrow corridors. While trying to sort out the problem; I inadvertently wandered into special use airspace. I had current paper maps with me; but were stowed neatly in my flight bag which was in the back seat of the airplane. Getting the maps and finding a fix to navigate to; took quite a bit of time. As I think back; I believe pilots flying aircraft with modern navigation systems can get lulled into a false sense of security. I will now advocate to my fellow pilots the importance of having paper maps readily at hand due to my experience. Maybe the best things that I could have done at the time would be to call Flight Service 121.5 and ask for frequencies and maybe a fix to expedite my departure from the special use airspace.