Date: Monday, June 25, 2001, 3:43:49 PM Subject: Electrical power loss Howdy y'all, This message is about a flight just previous to last weekend, where I had intended to fly my daughter down to UCSD for orientation. We were departing at 8pm, just as it got dark, so it was going to be a night-VFR flight. The run-up was cool, including the amp-meter, which indicated something just below 35 amps (normal for this new panel). As we climbed out and headed east-south-east towards VNY, some strange things began to happen. First, I noticed that one of the instruments panel lights began to dim and then brighten periodically. This turned out to be in direct synchrony with the strobes flashing. I looked over at the amp-meter and, sure enough, it had gone to zero -- no load. I looked over the circuit breakers, and the main 60 amp breaker had popped. I pushed it back in, but still no amp-load on the meter. This was bad. I immediately turned off most of the unnecessary avionics, and turned the plane around. We had gotten about 15-20 minutes out, and SBA departure had just handed me off to Pt. Mugu approach, but I refused to leave, and told them that I was operating without alternator. SBA approach asked if I wished to declare an emergency, and I said no, since I had some battery power, but I might lose electrical power and thus communications at some point. They cleared me to land on rwy 15R (15L closes at night), and I proceeded in. Two minutes after the landing clearance, I lost the main Garmin nav/comm and thus, lost communication. I have a hand-held Yaesu, but didn't actually need it until after landing, since I already had clearance to land -- and there was almost no other traffic right then. I periodically turned on the landing light, but kept it off to keep whatever remaining battery I had left. The end of the battery was signalled by the failing panel light of the attitude indicator, which occurred on final to 15R. It was a dark landing, without interior lights, without strobe, without beacon, at about 9pm. We taxied off the runway, and I contacted the tower/ground (same guy this late at night), and let them know where I was (since they couldn't see the dark plane, and where I needed to go. Throughout the whole thing, my 18 yr-old daughter was scared but calm -- until we had shut down the plane at our parking place, at which point she started crying. I asked her what she had been worrying about, and she said that even though I had been reassuring her that everything was okay, she had figured I was just trying to make her feel better and she had worried about all kinds of things happening -- like the engine falling off, us falling out of the sky, etc. She did a good job of remaining calm during the return flight, but I wished I could have done a better job of convincing here that it was really okay. So, we ended up driving my car down to UCSD -- something which I did NOT enjoy one bit. The post-mortem on the electrical failure was a loose ground connection to the battery. Apparently, the loose and intermittent connection was creating spikes on the buss and this popped the master breaker. I hadn't reset the master voltage regulator, but even if I had, the loose connection would have keep popping the breaker. All in all, I like that I had such an emergency so near to our home base, and also that I handled it pretty well, especially for nighttime VFR. I did learn that it's important to thoroughly reassure your passengers during any emergency, even if they are acting calm -- they may be harboring fears which can be quite traumatic if not dispelled with convincing, reassuring explanations. -- Best regards, Alan K. Stebbens , N4184R, PA32-300, SBA