A wire on a PA28's alternator came loose in flight causing a loss of electrical power. The pilot div...

Narrative:

While [I was] on an IFR flight plan; I experienced a total electrical failure when about 15 miles from the airport. When it happened; I was in and out of the cloud base. I immediately descended to about 9;300 feet to stay in VFR conditions. I could see my destination and another nearby airport. I pulled out my handheld radio and tried to contact ATC. I eventually got a hold of them and they told me to maintain 9K feet. I acknowledged and did that. They cleared me to the other airport (I asked to go there instead of my original destination thinking there would be better GA repair facilities). I was cleared to the airport and told to contact the tower. I contacted tower and was told to report on downwind of the runway. Since I was distracted with the noise in the cockpit; I forgot to contact tower on downwind and called them on final. They said I should have contacted them on downwind and I also lost track of other traffic in the pattern (it was on a right downwind). I apologized to the controller and eventually landed on the runway. A mechanic on the field found the post on the alternator had fallen off and was probably arcing. In hindsight I probably should have declared an emergency. I didn't think it was warranted at the time though since I could see the field and I knew the plane would keep running even with a dead battery. But the noise and difficulty of using a handheld in the cockpit was a difficult situation.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A wire on a PA28's alternator came loose in flight causing a loss of electrical power. The Pilot diverted to a nearby airport for maintenance using a handheld radio and in the distraction made some traffic pattern procedural errors.

Narrative: While [I was] on an IFR flight plan; I experienced a total electrical failure when about 15 miles from the airport. When it happened; I was in and out of the cloud base. I immediately descended to about 9;300 feet to stay in VFR conditions. I could see my destination and another nearby airport. I pulled out my handheld radio and tried to contact ATC. I eventually got a hold of them and they told me to maintain 9K feet. I acknowledged and did that. They cleared me to the other airport (I asked to go there instead of my original destination thinking there would be better GA repair facilities). I was cleared to the airport and told to contact the Tower. I contacted Tower and was told to report on downwind of the runway. Since I was distracted with the noise in the cockpit; I forgot to contact Tower on downwind and called them on final. They said I should have contacted them on downwind and I also lost track of other traffic in the pattern (it was on a right downwind). I apologized to the Controller and eventually landed on the runway. A mechanic on the field found the post on the alternator had fallen off and was probably arcing. In hindsight I probably should have declared an emergency. I didn't think it was warranted at the time though since I could see the field and I knew the plane would keep running even with a dead battery. But the noise and difficulty of using a handheld in the cockpit was a difficult situation.

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	897878
Time
Date	201007
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	Mixed
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	AC Generator/Alternator
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 25 Flight Crew Total 800 Flight Crew Type 250
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

A wire on a PA28's alternator came loose in flight causing a loss of electrical power. The pilot diverted to a nearby airport for maintenance using a handheld radio and in the distraction made some traffic pattern procedural errors.