When the landing gear doors failed to retract on a PA-31 the pilot extended the gear; made a fly-by ...

Narrative:

Upon takeoff/climbout the gear handle was placed in the up/up position for retraction. All indications were normal during retraction. The gear handle popped to up/neutral and the red in-transit light extinguished. Upon completion of the climb checklist; approximately 30 seconds later; I noticed that the red in-transit light was again illuminated. I requested to suspend my climb while I attempted to troubleshoot. I recycled the gear to the down position and received a green light on each gear. I brought the gear to the up/up position and monitored the indications and handle position. After a normal retraction; all lights were extinguished and the handle returned to up/neutral. After approximately 1-2 seconds the red transition light once again illuminated. I requested a return to the airport and for a low pass over runway 8. The tower confirmed the gear was up; however; the inboard doors were still open. After extending the gear I made another low pass on runway 3 and received confirmation that all three were down and locked. No abnormal indications occurred during the extension process. I flew another pattern and landed on runway 3 without incident. No defects in the gear were noted upon post flight inspection.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: When the landing gear doors failed to retract on a PA-31 the pilot extended the gear; made a fly-by for the Tower to confirm the gear was down and landed safely.

Narrative: Upon takeoff/climbout the gear handle was placed in the Up/Up position for retraction. All indications were normal during retraction. The gear handle popped to Up/Neutral and the red in-transit light extinguished. Upon completion of the Climb checklist; approximately 30 seconds later; I noticed that the red in-transit light was again illuminated. I requested to suspend my climb while I attempted to troubleshoot. I recycled the gear to the down position and received a green light on each gear. I brought the gear to the Up/Up position and monitored the indications and handle position. After a normal retraction; all lights were extinguished and the handle returned to Up/Neutral. After approximately 1-2 seconds the red transition light once again illuminated. I requested a return to the airport and for a low pass over Runway 8. The Tower confirmed the gear was up; however; the inboard doors were still open. After extending the gear I made another low pass on Runway 3 and received confirmation that all three were down and locked. No abnormal indications occurred during the extension process. I flew another pattern and landed on Runway 3 without incident. No defects in the gear were noted upon post flight inspection.

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	1087063
Time
Date	201305
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-31 Navajo/Chieftan/Mojave/T1040
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 135
Flight Phase	Climb
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Gear Extend/Retract Mechanism
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 90 Flight Crew Total 1750 Flight Crew Type 400
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

When the landing gear doors failed to retract on a PA-31 the pilot extended the gear; made a fly-by for the tower to confirm the gear was down and landed safely.