AN ACFT; PROBABLY A SINGLE ENG; HAS GENERATOR FAILURE AND GETS HELP FROM ARTCC.

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I NOTIFIED ZMP OF THE GENERATOR FAILURE AND REQUESTED VECTORS TO THE NEAREST VFR ARPT. ZMP ASKED IF I WISHED TO DECLARE AN EMER AND I DID DECLARE EMER. I SHUT DOWN ALL ELECTRICAL SYS EXCEPT THE KX155 COMS RADIO. AFTER RECEIVING VECTORS; I NAVED TO THE O'NEILL VOR BY HAND- HELD RADIO. I BECAME ESTABLISHED ON THE OUTBOUND VOR HDG. THE CLOUD DECK WAS APPROX 400 FT THICK. UPON REACHING THE INITIAL APCH ALT; I WAS IN VFR CONDITIONS. THE DSCNT AND LNDG WERE UNEVENTFUL. I REMAINED IN CONTACT WITH CTR UNTIL LNDG. UPON LNDG; I IMMEDIATELY CONTACTED COLUMBUS AFSS AND CANCELED MY IFR FLT PLAN. THE KEY TO THE SAFE RESOLUTION WAS A THOROUGH WX BRIEFING; INCLUDING THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LOCATION OF VFR CONDITIONS; COOPERATION OF ZMP; USE OF A HAND-HELD VOR RECEIVER; IMMEDIATE RECOGNITION OF THE PROB; AND GOOD FORTUNE. THE ACFT WAS CHKED AT O'NEILL BY AN A&P MECH. VFR CONDITIONS EXISTED TO THE E. THE BATTERY WAS RECHARGED. THE PROB RESOLVED ITSELF PARTIALLY ON THE WAY BACK. WHEN THE GENERATOR WAS CHARGING; I FILED AN AIRBORNE IFR FLT PLAN; BUT WAS AT ALL TIMES IN VFR CONDITIONS. I LANDED AT AMES; IA; SHORT OF MY DEST DUE TO TSTMS OVER SE IA.