Narrative:

On climbout garmin 300XL GPS/communication reset. While pilot trouble shooting and getting his back-up hand held GPS and hand held communication working he noted he came close to class B airspace without an entry clearance. He decided to continue flight with a westward departure under class B airspace to then fly VFR direct to destination. With subsequent successful resetting of his GPS/communication; he decided to continue VFR enroute; though forgot to activate flight plan. Some time later the GPS/communication reset again and entered self test mode repeatedly. Pilot trouble shot fuses; alternator switches and then thought he was likely dealing with an alternator failure. His back-up hand held radio indicated transmission but was not receiving. His first thought was to go to nearest airport ahead of him which was uncontrolled. As his gear is power driven he realized on approach that he would need to make a nose gear up landing. Note: varieze main gear is fixed and nose up landings usually result in metal plate protecting front strut skidding on runway without aircraft damage. At this point pilot decided best to try to make it to [his] destination [airport] where experts in varieze are located. However; he met a wall of rain some 10 minutes south of the airport. Pilot then decided best to land gear up at [another nearby] attended airport. Hand held radio was unsuccessful at hailing tower and declaring priority. Pilot then overflew field at 3000 rocking wings in attempt to follow light signal procedure; but was unsuccessful after two attempts and seeing the pattern was clear entered a left downwind. Pilot maintained airspeeds and traffic avoidance and followed emergency procedures per memory and landed to a skidding halt after approximately 500 ft. There was no damage to plane or pilot. Pilot exited aircraft; waved hands overhead at tower and was able to hand tow aircraft off active. He was met by fire/rescue personnel; who escorted aircraft to FBO where they diagnosed and repaired voltage regulator failure. Pilot relayed above information in 2 discussions with the tower personnel. Within hours pilot was able to successfully depart and compete his trip without incident. Next day he was able to fly two more legs without incident.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Varieze pilot reports electrical failure resulting in a nose gear up landing. Damage to aircraft was minimal and electrical problem was found to be a failed voltage regulator.

Narrative: On climbout Garmin 300XL GPS/COM reset. While pilot trouble shooting and getting his back-up hand held GPS and hand held COM working he noted he came close to Class B airspace without an entry clearance. He decided to continue flight with a westward departure under Class B airspace to then fly VFR direct to destination. With subsequent successful resetting of his GPS/COM; he decided to continue VFR enroute; though forgot to activate flight plan. Some time later the GPS/COM reset again and entered self test mode repeatedly. Pilot trouble shot fuses; alternator switches and then thought he was likely dealing with an alternator failure. His back-up hand held radio indicated transmission but was not receiving. His first thought was to go to nearest airport ahead of him which was uncontrolled. As his gear is power driven he realized on approach that he would need to make a nose gear up landing. Note: Varieze main gear is fixed and nose up landings usually result in metal plate protecting front strut skidding on runway without aircraft damage. At this point pilot decided best to try to make it to [his] destination [airport] where experts in Varieze are located. However; he met a wall of rain some 10 minutes south of the airport. Pilot then decided best to land gear up at [another nearby] attended airport. Hand held radio was unsuccessful at hailing Tower and declaring priority. Pilot then overflew field at 3000 rocking wings in attempt to follow light signal procedure; but was unsuccessful after two attempts and seeing the pattern was clear entered a left downwind. Pilot maintained airspeeds and traffic avoidance and followed emergency procedures per memory and landed to a skidding halt after approximately 500 FT. There was no damage to plane or pilot. Pilot exited aircraft; waved hands overhead at Tower and was able to hand tow aircraft off active. He was met by fire/rescue personnel; who escorted aircraft to FBO where they diagnosed and repaired voltage regulator failure. Pilot relayed above information in 2 discussions with the Tower personnel. Within hours pilot was able to successfully depart and compete his trip without incident. Next day he was able to fly two more legs without incident.

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.