20130510009579I

On may 10, 2013, the pilot and his family depart concord, CA (ccr) to livermore, CA (lvk) for fuel. The aircraft was fueled to 66 gallons and took off at approximately 9:10 pm. While cruising at 12,000 feet, and preparing to descend to reno, the pilot noticed that the arrows for the main landing gear were illuminated green, indicating that those two wheels were down with the gear control lever in the up position. Furthermore, the nose gear arrow was not illuminated. The pilot put the gear lever down to see if the nose gear would extend and illuminate the green light; however, it did not.

He cycled the gear lever by putting it up, but still saw no change. (Main gear still down, nose gear still up). The red ?gear in transit? Light remained off. The pilot pulled the emergency gear release which had no effect on the gear configuration. For about 10 minutes, the pilot tried every possible combination of lever position, and resetting the emergency gear release with no change. Finally, the pilot left the gear lever in the down position and about 5 minutes from reno airport, he noticed that all three gear indicated green. After landing and on rollout, the reno tower told the pilot that they saw ?sparks? Coming from the landing gear. The pilot reduced power, and as the airplane slowed down, the engine stalled right on the runway. After a fire inspection, the aircraft was towed to transit parking.

Note: aircraft maintenance is available at rno; however, the pilot elected not to have the aircraft inspected after the above flight.

On Sunday afternoon, may 12, 2013, the pilot and his family departed reno for a flight back to concord. No additional fuel was added prior to may 10, 2013, livermore, CA (lvk) fueling. The pilot stated that in the interest of safety, he decided to make the entire return trip with the landing gear extended. The pilot stated that performance of the aircraft was definitely less than what he was used to, but he attributed that to the full load of passengers and luggage, the extended landing gear, and the high density altitude. He went on to state that after passing Auburn, CA the engine had a sudden loss of power. He switched fuel tanks, and the engine just sputtered. After informing norcal approach, he began a circling descent to the Auburn airport. As the airplane got lower, the engine seemed to run better, and by the time N54TW landed on Auburn?s runway 25, the engine seemed to develop full power again. After taxiing to transient parking, the pilot did a full run-up to evaluate performance. Spectators standing nearby reported that they saw ?black smoke? And?oil running out of the engine?.

A few days later, the FAA and an aircraft maintenance facility in Auburn, CA inspected the aircraft and discovered several significant mechanical problems:

Landing gear:

Hydraulic pump continues to run.

Hydraulic pressure switch intermittent.

Nose gear actuator leaking.

Engine:

The turbocharger has 3 broken blades. The dual magneto has an incorrect gasket installed, and the single drive magnetos is installed upside-down. The magneto rotates intermittently due to loose hardware affecting engine timing.

Cylinder #4 exhaust manifold was cracked.

Fuel:

Fuel cap o rings are cracked.

Belly fuel sump drain valve leaking.

Left wing sump drain leaking.

When the fuel was drained, it was determined that the right wing has less that 1 pint and the left wing has less than 4 gallons available.

Note: unuasable is 1.3 gallons per side.