DHC8 captain reports accepting an aircraft that had been ferried for maintenance after a gear malfun...

Narrative:

During the preflight logbook inspection it was discovered there had been a gear problem; the aircraft was ferried; fixed; and not test flown. Our briefing included to be aware that the gear might still have a problem. We took off and the nose gear failed to retract. We called ATC and got vectors to run the checklist. At the completion of the checklist; I declared an emergency; did a low pass on the runway; and then landed. During the takeoff; tower advised that our nose gear appeared half retracted. During the low pass; tower and an airline crew said our gear appeared to be down; so we stayed in the pattern and landed visually. Always test fly an aircraft after a landing gear incident/fix before operating a revenue flight.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: DHC8 Captain reports accepting an aircraft that had been ferried for maintenance after a gear malfunction. The nose gear does not retract after takeoff and the flight returns to the departure airport.

Narrative: During the preflight logbook inspection it was discovered there had been a gear problem; the aircraft was ferried; fixed; and not test flown. Our briefing included to be aware that the gear might still have a problem. We took off and the nose gear failed to retract. We called ATC and got vectors to run the checklist. At the completion of the checklist; I declared an emergency; did a low pass on the runway; and then landed. During the takeoff; Tower advised that our nose gear appeared half retracted. During the low pass; Tower and an airline crew said our gear appeared to be down; so we stayed in the pattern and landed visually. ALWAYS test fly an aircraft after a landing gear incident/fix before operating a revenue flight.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1021670
Time
Date	201207
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Dash 8-300
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Gear Extend/Retract Mechanism
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

DHC8 captain reports accepting an aircraft that had been ferried for maintenance after a gear malfunction. The nose gear does not retract after takeoff and the flight returns to the departure airport.