All of this happened as I was leaving the avionics shop in Asheboro (HBI). They had already gone for the day (it was after 5:00) and I was heading to RDU to pick my son up and then back to ILM.
It really wasn't a big deal........apparently the Raleigh/Durham news people thought that it was......but not really.
As Brook said, the Raleigh/Durhan news even reported it with a "news flash" type interruption to regular programming.......they said that the pilot had to make an unscheduled emergency precautionary landing due to a landing gear problem. They were nice enough to report that the pilot landed safely with no issues. The couple of problems with the reporting were that (1) it was not an unscheduled landing.....I was on my way there to pick my son up anyway (it was VFR so no flight plan), and (2) the word "Emergency" never came out of anybody's mouth other than the reporter's.
The gear wasn't stuck in the "up" position.......it was stuck extended. Stuck may be the wrong word. When the gear switch was put in the "up" position, the green "gear down" light went out (as it should), but the red "gear up" light didn't come on. Of course the first thing that I thought was that maybe the light buld was just bad, but then I thought......I have two sets of gear lights......both of them probably aren't bad.
Then I looked at my air speed......only 150......hmmmmmmm......should be more like 180 to 190. Thankfully the max gear extended speed on the plane is 179 so I didn't damage anything.
I flipped the gear switch back to the "down" position and the green light immediately came on.....damn......the gear had never even tried to come up.
I called RDU approach and told them that I was having trouble getting my gear to come up and that I was going to be making a full stop landing there. They asked if I needed any assistance. I said "No", but I would like to make a low pass just so someone can take a quick look to be sure that my gear is indeed "down". They cleared me for the low approach runway 5R.
They did ask the dreaded question...."how much fuel and how many souls on board". There is just something unsettling when the tower asks "how much fuel and
how many souls on board". Even if the problem isn't a big deal, those words send a little chill down your spine.
When I got close enough to see the airport, there sat all these flashing red and white lights at the end of the runway. My wife said "what's that"......I said......Honey, that's all for us I guess....LOL.
We made a low pass at 400 feet. There were what looked like a half dozen or so emergency vehicles at the end of the runway with their spot lights looking at my gear. The tower said that the gear was down and asked which runway that we wanted. I told them that I would just go around and land on 5R.
Just before I was turning final, the wife put her hand on my knee and told me she loved me......man.....that will make you feel bad in a hurry. When that happens, and in the tone of voice that she used, you know that she is at least a little worried.
I just laughed and told her that I loved her too, but that this was
really not a big deal......"Just a minor thing.....don't wory about it."
I don't think she really got worried until she saw all the emergency vehicles sitting there......that did make it look a lot worse than it really was. It would probably also be correct to say that the "how many souls" question probably didn't help much either.
We landed (smoothly I might add) with no incident.
I guess the worst part of the whole thing is that just 2 hours prior to this, I wrote an $8,000.00 (a little over actually) check for the avionics upgrades to the plane at the shop in Asheboro.....now I've got to deal with a gear issue.
The gear was working fine when the avionics guy and I took the plane out for a test drive. I had noticed that the clock in the yoke was not working, so he pulled the glare shield and found a connector that was not connected. I am hoping that while he was in there fixing that problem, he accidentally knocked a wire loose from the landing gear switch. God knows that would beat having to buy a new gear motor. I have also thought about the "squat switch" being stuck.
In either case, I got a rental car and drove back to Wilmington. I would have flown it home last night, but though I don't think that there is a safety issue with it, I would prefer not to have my wife and son with me in it until I am absolutely sure.
Anyway.....it was an exciting evening. I finally got hold of my avionics guy as well as the mechanic this morning. I am flying the plane back to Asheboro tomorrow evening so that they can take a look at it and hopefully find that it was just a wire that pulled loose while they were working behind the panel.
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