Narrative:

While practicing some solo steep turns; I noticed that the radios and turn coordinator started flashing a red off tag; then the DME display started flashing indicating that I was 110 NM out from the airport (the VOR sits in the middle of the airport) then it would flash 14.3 NM which sounded more accurate. I tried listening to the ATIS and planned to head back to my home airport but there was only a high pitch noise coming from the airplanes radio. I then proceeded to go through my emergency checklist and when I finally got to the circuit breakers all checked ok; none were tripped. I then realized I had lost the electrical system to the airplane. Then I turned off the anti collision lights and radio master switch for about a minute then after turning it back on I retried contacting the tower but I did not get any response. Since I did not receive any response from the tower I squawked 7600 and pressed the identify button on the transponder to try and get the controller's attention if the transponder was working. I then started heading back to the airport for a landing. While enroute to the airport I remembered I had my cell phone on my left pocket and tried calling my flight school to inform them about my situation; once I saw that the call had been answered I informed them what was going on and asked them to call the tower and let them know I was going to land on runway 28L which I had taken off from an hour earlier. I could not hear them because of the noise inside the cockpit. Once I was in the airports airspace I entered on a 45 for the downwind leg and lined up for the runway. I tried looking for any light signals from the tower with no success. At that point all that was in my mind was to get the plane in the ground and that's all I concentrated my attention to. After I landed I was greeted by one of the instructors who told me that the runway I used was closed at the time. He said after talking with the tower they said they had been using the red gun signals which I did not see to let me know I was not cleared to land. No injuries or property damage resulted from the situation; yet I still consider that this report is appropriate since I technically landed on a runway on which I was not cleared to land. I had an extensive talk with my instructor and reviewed what I could have done to better deal with the situation if it was to present itself again. I definitely took this as a really valuable learning experience which I am sure I will never forget. I believe this was my first in flight emergency and even though there were things I could have done better I believe that I handled it in an appropriate manner.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A solo C-172 student pilot lost all electrical power; squawked 7600; called his instructor on a cell phone and landed on a closed runway after failing to see ATC's red light signal.

Narrative: While practicing some solo steep turns; I noticed that the radios and turn coordinator started flashing a red off tag; then the DME display started flashing indicating that I was 110 NM out from the airport (the VOR sits in the middle of the airport) then it would flash 14.3 NM which sounded more accurate. I tried listening to the ATIS and planned to head back to my home airport but there was only a high pitch noise coming from the airplanes radio. I then proceeded to go through my emergency checklist and when I finally got to the circuit breakers all checked OK; none were tripped. I then realized I had lost the electrical system to the airplane. Then I turned off the anti collision lights and radio master switch for about a minute then after turning it back on I retried contacting the Tower but I did not get any response. Since I did not receive any response from the Tower I squawked 7600 and pressed the IDENT button on the transponder to try and get the Controller's attention if the transponder was working. I then started heading back to the airport for a landing. While enroute to the airport I remembered I had my cell phone on my left pocket and tried calling my flight school to inform them about my situation; once I saw that the call had been answered I informed them what was going on and asked them to call the Tower and let them know I was going to land on Runway 28L which I had taken off from an hour earlier. I could not hear them because of the noise inside the cockpit. Once I was in the airports airspace I entered on a 45 for the downwind leg and lined up for the runway. I tried looking for any light signals from the Tower with no success. At that point all that was in my mind was to get the plane in the ground and that's all I concentrated my attention to. After I landed I was greeted by one of the instructors who told me that the runway I used was closed at the time. He said after talking with the Tower they said they had been using the red gun signals which I did not see to let me know I was not cleared to land. No injuries or property damage resulted from the situation; yet I still consider that this report is appropriate since I technically landed on a runway on which I was not cleared to land. I had an extensive talk with my instructor and reviewed what I could have done to better deal with the situation if it was to present itself again. I definitely took this as a really valuable learning experience which I am sure I will never forget. I believe this was my first in flight emergency and even though there were things I could have done better I believe that I handled it in an appropriate manner.

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.