Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Total 250
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Troubleshooting; Distraction; Workload; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure; Human Factors; Aircraft
Just south of the 'Bridge' NDB in New York underneath the Class Bravo I realized my alternator had stopped working. I was underneath the Class B shelf in New York. I was at about 350 MSL trying to stay under the +500 FT shelf of the Class B heading east. I was south of the shoreline. I went to my checklist and started to shed the load and tried to get it working again by popping the circuit breaker in and out. I did this twice but the alternator would not come back on. The load just kept reading zero. When I hit Long Beach I started my climb up to pattern altitude for a nearby airport. This is when I had total electrical failure. I was out from underneath of the 1;500 FT Class B shelf and I began to climb to 3;600 because I wanted to be 1;000 above the airport's Delta airspace and wait for light gun signals. I tried turning the radios on again and they came on very briefly only for me to report to Tower saying my radios would probably go out again but I did get cleared into the airspace. Not sure if they even heard me say; 'I may lose communications again.' It was in that brief moment that the radios came on that I realized I had drifted into the Bravo and was now above the 1;500 FT shelf. I immediately descended to pattern altitude. After I lost all my radios and NAVAIDS in the dead of night; I lost situational awareness and did not realize I had drifted into the Bravo. If it was during the day this might have been avoided; but in the night it was hard to reference myself. I didn't panic because I knew I would still have my engine but as a first timer of such a situation happening and being night time I don't think I took the necessary precautions that I should have taken now when I look back. I should have called Approach up as soon as I saw I had an alternator failure. It may have lessened the blow of buzzing the Bravo; if at all.
A pilot reported his aircraft's electrical system failed during a night VMC flight beneath NYC Class B near BRIDGE NDB and although he attempted to exit the airspace; ultimately entered nearby Class D as well as NYC Class B.