After suffering a complete electrical failure after takeoff; a C-182RG pilot flew a closed course pa...

Attributes
ACN	946834
Time
Date	201104
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skylane 182/RG Turbo Skylane/RG
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Electrical Power
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 33 Flight Crew Total 760 Flight Crew Type 650
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

Narrative:

I lost all electrical power in the climb from the runway at 400 ft AGL. My radios; transponder and all avionics went dark; and the alternator appeared to have failed. My hand was on the gear knob; but I had not raised it yet. I made a standard pattern turn to the left to return to the runway for immediate landing. I checked the breakers; and found none offline. On downwind; base and final; I did not see any conflicting traffic. The tower did a great job; and I did see a green light gun. I rocked my wings to acknowledge and landed without flaps; incident or further communication. I called the tower on a cell phone to thank them; and cancel the IFR plan. My mechanic called today to tell me that the likely cause was a battery in a low voltage condition and the alternator went offline to protect the system.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: After suffering a complete electrical failure after takeoff; a C-182RG pilot flew a closed course pattern and landed with light signal clearance from the Tower.

Narrative: I lost all electrical power in the climb from the runway at 400 FT AGL. My radios; transponder and all avionics went dark; and the alternator appeared to have failed. My hand was on the gear knob; but I had not raised it yet. I made a standard pattern turn to the left to return to the runway for immediate landing. I checked the breakers; and found none offline. On downwind; base and final; I did not see any conflicting traffic. The Tower did a great job; and I did see a green light gun. I rocked my wings to acknowledge and landed without flaps; incident or further communication. I called the Tower on a cell phone to thank them; and cancel the IFR plan. My mechanic called today to tell me that the likely cause was a battery in a low voltage condition and the alternator went offline to protect the system.

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.

After suffering a complete electrical failure after takeoff; a C-182RG pilot flew a closed course pattern and landed with light signal clearance from the tower.