During climb; the captain lost his airspeed and altitude indications so he transferred control to th...

Narrative:

After takeoff; while climbing out of 3;000 feet the captain lost his navigational display; as well as airspeed and altitude tapes. The first officer's instruments were indicating normal at this time. I transferred aircraft control to him and began to work the problem. Initially it appeared to be an FMC [flight management computer] failure or DEU1 [display electronics unit] failure but the problem soon escalated into more problems. The stick shaker began to go off intermittently even though the airspeed was indicating 250 on both the first officer's instruments and the standby airspeed indicator. Next the interior lighting began to fail. I then noticed that the standby power was on. This was confusing because the first officer still had his instruments and the problem was on the captain's side. After pulling up the electrical page schematic; it appeared that the generators were producing power but [were] unable to connect to the busses. At this point I elected to assume a loss of all generators and deployed the air driven generator [air driven generator]. I then declared an emergency and requested a return to the airport. I assumed control of the aircraft on final and flew a visual approach to a normal landing.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: During climb; the Captain lost his airspeed and altitude indications so he transferred control to the First Officer. As he was attempting to work the associated checklist; the electrical problems continued; they declared an emergency and returned to the field.

Narrative: After takeoff; while climbing out of 3;000 feet the Captain lost his navigational display; as well as airspeed and altitude tapes. The First Officer's instruments were indicating normal at this time. I transferred aircraft control to him and began to work the problem. Initially it appeared to be an FMC [Flight Management Computer] failure or DEU1 [Display Electronics Unit] failure but the problem soon escalated into more problems. The stick shaker began to go off intermittently even though the airspeed was indicating 250 on both the First Officer's instruments and the standby airspeed indicator. Next the interior lighting began to fail. I then noticed that the standby power was on. This was confusing because the First Officer still had his instruments and the problem was on the Captain's side. After pulling up the electrical page schematic; it appeared that the generators were producing power but [were] unable to connect to the busses. At this point I elected to assume a loss of all generators and deployed the ADG [Air Driven Generator]. I then declared an emergency and requested a return to the airport. I assumed control of the aircraft on final and flew a visual approach to a normal landing.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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	1064621
Time
Date	201301
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-11
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb Initial Climb
Component
Aircraft Component	Electrical Power
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

During climb; the captain lost his airspeed and altitude indications so he transferred control to the first officer. As he was attempting to work the associated checklist; the electrical problems continued; they declared an emergency and returned to the field.