CHI00LA293

The airplane sustained substantial damage during a wheels up landing. The pilot stated, "On the downwind leg gear failed to come down during prelanding checklist. Attempted to recycle the gear down lever, with same results." A FAA on-scene examination revealed that the landing gear powerpack's electric motor was defective. The examination further revealed that during the last annual, a kit to delete the automatic extension features of the landing gear system was incorrectly installed. As installed, the kit would not allow an emergency extension of the landing gear. A FAA inspector stated, "Instructions allowed that once the kit was installed to perform a landing gear retract check to ensure that the operations of the landing gear was satisfactory. [The airplane operator] failed to perform this portion of the operation."

On September 1, 2000, at 1830 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA28R-200, N1334T, piloted by a private pilot, sustained substantial damage during a wheels up landing on runway 18 (5,500 feet X 100 feet, dry/asphalt) at Clark County Airport (JVY) near Sellersburg, Indiana. The personal flight was operating under 14 CFR Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. No flight plan was on file. The pilot was uninjured. The local flight departed from JVY at 1600.

The pilot stated, "On the downwind leg gear failed to come down during prelanding checklist. Attempted to recycle the gear down lever, with same results." He said, "[An employee] of [the airplane operator] contacted me via UNICOM and we discussed options. After moving to another common freq. (122.95), [the employee] suggested other alternatives such as slow flight with flaps extended to full, wigging the A/C, pull the circuit breaker to see if the hydraulic pressure would bleed off and the gear come down on its own in addition to the emergency checklist alternatives. This all occurred over a period of about 2 hours. At the end of attempting these alternatives, it was decided to gear up land on runway 18. Neither winds nor weather was a factor."

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspectors performed an on-scene examination of the airplane. The examination revealed that the landing gear powerpack's electric motor was defective. The examination further revealed that during the last annual, a kit to delete the automatic extension features of the landing gear system was incorrectly installed. As installed, the kit would not allow an emergency extension of the landing gear. A FAA inspector stated, "Instructions allowed that once the kit was installed to perform a landing gear retract check to ensure that the operations of the landing gear was satisfactory. [The airplane operator] failed to perform this portion of the operation."