he lost engine power I imagine his AH was ran off the engine vac pump, not the best thing to lose at night.
And with only 150 hours and a couple of hours under the hood where it is easy to look outside, a pilot of that low experience could no way be expected to maintain control at night using only an electrically powered Turn Coordinator or Turn and Bank indicator. Even nowadays it is unheard of to find private pilots practicing limited panel flying (no artificial horizon) on their desk top simulator or flying school FTD; despite they would be wise to do, however.