Narrative:

I; as pilot not flying; noticed during the climb flow that the hydraulic pump was running an unusually long time and checked the gear handle to notice that the three green position indicator lights and the in-transit light were illuminated with the gear handle in the up position. I confirmed airspeed was below 150 KTS; verbalized the problem to the IOE first officer who was pilot flying and advised her to remain below 150 KTS for now. I verified the pressure and quantity. Indications were all normal for the hydraulics system. I ran the climb checklist where I manually turned off the takeoff inhibit at that point. I then announced to the first officer that I would be going to the QRH for gear unsafe. The checklist design and notes did a good job at clearing up confusion on whether we had gear down and unsafe or gear up and unsafe. At this point; the hydraulic pump had been continuously running for three or four minutes so I decided for safety of the flight to turn off the hydraulic pump switch to prevent the pump from burning up before we needed it. We ran the QRH to recycle the landing gear. At this point due to the normal bleed off of hydraulic pressure; the hydraulic master caution illuminated and all gear lights went out. We never heard the thump of gear retraction. I placed the hydraulic pump switch back in auto and the pump ran up to normal pressure and shut off. I placed the gear handle down and the pump turned on and there was a familiar thud of the gear locking out and confirmed by the three green lights. Since the lights were on when they usually were not before; we visually confirmed that the gear appeared to be down. I hesitated to retract them at this point but followed the checklist and moved the gear handle to the up position. After 10-15 seconds of the previous situation; I continued down the QRH to place the gear down and land at the nearest suitable airport. At this point; I instructed the first officer to now stay below 200 KTS; and I would be off comm 1 to contact the company. I contacted dispatch and conferred with the dispatcher on my plans to declare an emergency (since I wasn't sure about taxiing in unassisted at this point); continuing to destination since it was only 40 miles ahead and to maintenance control about taxing in unassisted since at this point we had all normal indications in the current aircraft state. We declared the emergency; asked for 26R and notified ATC that we planned on taxiing in unassisted at this point. I declined the offer to do a fly by as I felt it offered no benefit at this time. We then completed the rest of our checklists and briefing which included that we would transfer controls to me after the briefing in order for me to perform the landing. We notified the flight attendant of the issue and advised her that there was no need to notify the passengers and no need to brace because we had all normal indications. We landed and came to a complete stop after exiting the runway. We evaluated the aircraft state after the after landing checklist and I discussed my decision to the first officer to taxi in. I notified the tower controller that we do not require the arff units to inspect the landing gear and they dispersed except for a couple of units that followed us in. We set the parking brake at the parking spot and handed the gear pins out the document hatch to the line mechanics who met the aircraft. Once the gear was pinned we finished our checklists and the passengers deplaned. We then notified dispatch and maintenance control after briefing the line mechanics and entering the discrepancy in the aircraft maintenance log.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An SF340 flight crew experienced a gear that failed to retract on departure. They continued to their destination where an uneventful landing took place and maintenance action followed.

Narrative: I; as pilot not flying; noticed during the climb flow that the hydraulic pump was running an unusually long time and checked the gear handle to notice that the three green position indicator lights and the in-transit light were illuminated with the gear handle in the up position. I confirmed airspeed was below 150 KTS; verbalized the problem to the IOE First Officer who was pilot flying and advised her to remain below 150 KTS for now. I verified the pressure and quantity. Indications were all normal for the hydraulics system. I ran the climb checklist where I manually turned off the takeoff inhibit at that point. I then announced to the First Officer that I would be going to the QRH for gear unsafe. The checklist design and notes did a good job at clearing up confusion on whether we had gear down and unsafe or gear up and unsafe. At this point; the hydraulic pump had been continuously running for three or four minutes so I decided for safety of the flight to turn off the hydraulic pump switch to prevent the pump from burning up before we needed it. We ran the QRH to recycle the landing gear. At this point due to the normal bleed off of hydraulic pressure; the Hydraulic Master Caution illuminated and all gear lights went out. We never heard the thump of gear retraction. I placed the hydraulic pump switch back in auto and the pump ran up to normal pressure and shut off. I placed the gear handle down and the pump turned on and there was a familiar thud of the gear locking out and confirmed by the three green lights. Since the lights were on when they usually were not before; we visually confirmed that the gear appeared to be down. I hesitated to retract them at this point but followed the checklist and moved the gear handle to the up position. After 10-15 seconds of the previous situation; I continued down the QRH to place the gear down and land at the nearest suitable airport. At this point; I instructed the First Officer to now stay below 200 KTS; and I would be off COMM 1 to contact the company. I contacted Dispatch and conferred with the Dispatcher on my plans to declare an emergency (since I wasn't sure about taxiing in unassisted at this point); continuing to destination since it was only 40 miles ahead and to Maintenance Control about taxing in unassisted since at this point we had all normal indications in the current aircraft state. We declared the emergency; asked for 26R and notified ATC that we planned on taxiing in unassisted at this point. I declined the offer to do a fly by as I felt it offered no benefit at this time. We then completed the rest of our checklists and briefing which included that we would transfer controls to me after the briefing in order for me to perform the landing. We notified the Flight Attendant of the issue and advised her that there was no need to notify the passengers and no need to brace because we had all normal indications. We landed and came to a complete stop after exiting the runway. We evaluated the aircraft state after the after landing checklist and I discussed my decision to the First Officer to taxi in. I notified the Tower Controller that we do not require the ARFF units to inspect the landing gear and they dispersed except for a couple of units that followed us in. We set the parking brake at the parking spot and handed the gear pins out the document hatch to the line mechanics who met the aircraft. Once the gear was pinned we finished our checklists and the passengers deplaned. We then notified Dispatch and Maintenance Control after briefing the line mechanics and entering the discrepancy in the aircraft maintenance log.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.