Narrative:

While conducting recurrent flight training with a company pilot; I was acting as a CFI sitting in the right seat during the takeoff roll and takeoff. After the pilot flying raised the landing gear switch; I noticed that the amber 'gear up' light did not come on. The gear had not retracted and this was confirmed when I looked out at the mirror on the left wing strut and confirmed that the main gear was still down while the main gear doors remained open. The nose gear appeared to be down although I could not see the nose gear doors clearly through the mirror. I then assumed command of the aircraft and directed the pilot flying to continue while I worked through the poh emergency procedure for a landing gear failure. I also contacted our director of maintenance via radio and he was helpful in troubleshooting the situation. Per the poh; I pulled and reset the 'landing gear motor' circuit breaker. The motor circuit breaker popped and was not reset. We did not have either 'gear up' amber light or a 'gear down' green light and the gear warning horn was sounding at all times. I elected not to try to retract the gear as suggested by the poh; but did use the emergency gear pump and pumped 50 strokes before directing the pilot flying to pump another 50 strokes while I flew the aircraft. The poh says 95 strokes should result in increased resistance which told me that something was not right; but we did not know what the problem really was. Through the director of maintenance; I received direction from the company owner/director of operations to land the airplane at ZZZ and keep weight off the nose gear as long as possible. I landed the airplane on runway 22 with little or no wind blowing and held the nose gear off as long as possible. When the nose gear lowered to the runway; it appeared that it might hold although the airplane appeared to be in a nose low attitude (like when the nose strut is not inflated). After 3-4 seconds the aircraft nose continued to descend until the front prop struck the runway and stopped turning. At the same time the airplane swerved to the left and I immediately applied hard right rudder and brake. After the aircraft left the runway and was headed for a deep ditch; I applied full braking on both brakes and the airplane came to rest some 50 ft from the runway and on fairly level ground. I opened the door; directed the pilot not flying to turn off the master switch and magneto switches and exited the airplane and then made sure the other pilot exited and we were both clear of the airplane. This is the end of the incident since there was no fire or further action taken other than to remove the airplane from the runway area. Upon inspection; the director of maintenance found a broken centering spring to be the probable cause for the nose gear not to be locked in the down position.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Nose gear of Cessna 337 fails to retract after takeoff and cannot be extended fully for landing. Collapses during roll out and aircraft exits the runway.

Narrative: While conducting recurrent flight training with a company Pilot; I was acting as a CFI sitting in the right seat during the takeoff roll and takeoff. After the Pilot Flying raised the landing gear switch; I noticed that the amber 'gear up' light did not come on. The gear had not retracted and this was confirmed when I looked out at the mirror on the left wing strut and confirmed that the main gear was still down while the main gear doors remained open. The nose gear appeared to be down although I could not see the nose gear doors clearly through the mirror. I then assumed command of the aircraft and directed the Pilot Flying to continue while I worked through the POH emergency procedure for a landing gear failure. I also contacted our Director of Maintenance via radio and he was helpful in troubleshooting the situation. Per the POH; I pulled and reset the 'landing gear motor' CB. The motor CB popped and was not reset. We did not have either 'gear up' amber light or a 'gear down' green light and the gear warning horn was sounding at all times. I elected not to try to retract the gear as suggested by the POH; but did use the emergency gear pump and pumped 50 strokes before directing the Pilot Flying to pump another 50 strokes while I flew the aircraft. The POH says 95 strokes should result in increased resistance which told me that something was not right; but we did not know what the problem really was. Through the Director of Maintenance; I received direction from the company owner/Director of Operations to land the airplane at ZZZ and keep weight off the nose gear as long as possible. I landed the airplane on Runway 22 with little or no wind blowing and held the nose gear off as long as possible. When the nose gear lowered to the runway; it appeared that it might hold although the airplane appeared to be in a nose low attitude (like when the nose strut is not inflated). After 3-4 seconds the aircraft nose continued to descend until the front prop struck the runway and stopped turning. At the same time the airplane swerved to the left and I immediately applied hard right rudder and brake. After the aircraft left the runway and was headed for a deep ditch; I applied full braking on both brakes and the airplane came to rest some 50 FT from the runway and on fairly level ground. I opened the door; directed the Pilot Not Flying to turn off the master switch and magneto switches and exited the airplane and then made sure the other Pilot exited and we were both clear of the airplane. This is the end of the incident since there was no fire or further action taken other than to remove the airplane from the runway area. Upon inspection; the Director of Maintenance found a broken centering spring to be the probable cause for the nose gear not to be locked in the down position.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of May 2009 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.