CEN12LA283

The pilot stated that he was unable to fully retract the landing gear after takeoff and the landing gear position indicator transition light remained illuminated. He tried to manually extend the landing gear, but the crank arm was difficult to turn. Unable to fully extend or retract the landing gear, the pilot diverted to a nearby airport where he performed a landing with the gear partially extended, which resulted in substantial damage to the airplane. During the postaccident recovery and examination of the airplane, the landing gear was cycled repeatedly using the airplane’s normal (electrical) landing gear system and operated normally. Although the manual landing gear extension handle was difficult to turn during postaccident testing, this would not explain why the gear would not retract. Postaccident examination of the landing gear system could not duplicate the condition that resulted in the partial gear-up landing.

On April 24, 2012, about 1704 central daylight time, a Beech 58, N8121R, experienced a gear-up landing on runway 33 at Joe Foss Field Airport (FSD), Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The pilot was uninjured. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. The airplane was registered to and operated by the pilot under the provision of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident and a flight plan had not been filed for the local flight that departed from the Marv Skie-Lincoln County Airport (Y14), Tea, South Dakota. The pilot stated that after takeoff from Y14 he was unable to fully retract the landing gear and the landing gear position indicator transition light remained illuminated. He reset the landing gear circuit breaker which was tripped but it tripped again. He tried to extend the landing gear using the manual extension, but the crank arm was stuck. Unable to extend the landing gear, the pilot performed a gear-up landing on runway 33 at FSD, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage. According to an airframe and powerplant mechanic who recovered the airplane, the landing gear was extended to half of its travel. When airplane was raised for recovery, the landing gear retracted into the wheel wells using the airplane electrical system. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector stated that during the recovery, the manual landing gear extension handle was difficult to turn. Postaccident examination of the landing gear system revealed that the landing gear operated normally when actuated about 10 times. There was no obstruction in the landing gear transmission and operation of the landing gear electric motor did not reveal any unusual noises. The stop within the transmission did not provide an over center position, and the landing gear system rods were not deformed. The electric motor had a 1996 date stamp and there was no record that it had been overhauled or repaired.