Narrative:

I put my gear up and gear appeared to go up. I had my one and only green light for the mains but my nose gear mechanical indicator showed a 'down' indication. I climbed to my assigned altitude of 5;000 and then began to troubleshoot. I cycled the gear down and then back up with same indications. I calculated my cruise speed at 157 KTS airspeed which was correct - didn't appear to be any decrease due to extended nose gear. I turned on the nose gear landing light and viewed in the mirror on my tip tank. Unfortunately; I was unable to tell whether the nose gear light was pointing forward in its normal position or whether I was seeing the light stowed away pointing down and seeing the light through gaps in the nose gear doors. I informed departure of the situation and he asked if I was declaring an emergency. I responded that I was not declaring an emergency and would go ahead and fly to destination and handle it there. We were transferred to several other ATC controllers along the route; each one being informed of my situation. Approach asked for the number of souls on board and fuel remaining...I answered. I told approach that I was going to have my wife out at the airport and I would perform a fly-by and she could visualize the gear position status. ATC informed me (and I already knew) that the tower was closed and personnel had gone for the night. ATC then came back and said that they had declared an emergency and that fire equipment and personnel and police would be at the airport when we arrived. I heard on the frequency another plane going into the airport several minutes before I would arrive. I contacted him on the CTAF and asked him if he would go out to the taxi way and visualize my gear status for me (since he was a corporate pilot with trained eyes; unlike my wife). He agreed and stated that he would be there with the police and fire department and would shine a spotlight on my gear as I flew by. I did use my poh and briefed my passenger (a private pilot) about the situation if we had to do a manual gear extension and also about the situation should the nose gear collapse on landing or rollout. I placed my gear in the down position and did a fly-by at 100 ft and approximately 90 KTS. They informed me that the gear all appeared to be down and inner gear doors were closed (as they should be). I added throttle and climbed back to pattern altitude. I notified the guys on the ground that I was going to fly back around and do a fly by with the gear supposedly stowed. I did the fly by and they said all the gear was stowed and all gear doors were closed. I came back around with the gear down and had them verify this one more time. I climbed back to pattern altitude with gear down and then performed the best soft field landing in my 1;200 plus hours; keeping the nose gear off until the last possible second. The nose gear held fine and I braked very; very gently and taxied back to the hangar. I thanked the pilot and crew who helped me in this situation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BE33 pilot receives a green light gear up indication after retracting the gear on takeoff; but the mechanical nose gear indicator shows the nose gear down. Trouble shooting enroute and at the destination indicate that the mechanical indicator is stuck and a normal landing ensues.

Narrative: I put my gear up and gear appeared to go up. I had my one and only green light for the mains but my nose gear mechanical indicator showed a 'down' indication. I climbed to my assigned altitude of 5;000 and then began to troubleshoot. I cycled the gear down and then back up with same indications. I calculated my cruise speed at 157 KTS airspeed which was correct - didn't appear to be any decrease due to extended nose gear. I turned on the nose gear landing light and viewed in the mirror on my tip tank. Unfortunately; I was unable to tell whether the nose gear light was pointing forward in its normal position or whether I was seeing the light stowed away pointing down and seeing the light through gaps in the nose gear doors. I informed departure of the situation and he asked if I was declaring an emergency. I responded that I was NOT declaring an emergency and would go ahead and fly to destination and handle it there. We were transferred to several other ATC controllers along the route; each one being informed of my situation. Approach asked for the number of souls on board and fuel remaining...I answered. I told Approach that I was going to have my wife out at the airport and I would perform a fly-by and she could visualize the gear position status. ATC informed me (and I already knew) that the Tower was closed and personnel had gone for the night. ATC then came back and said that they had declared an emergency and that fire equipment and personnel and police would be at the airport when we arrived. I heard on the frequency another plane going into the airport several minutes before I would arrive. I contacted him on the CTAF and asked him if he would go out to the taxi way and visualize my gear status for me (since he was a corporate pilot with trained eyes; unlike my wife). He agreed and stated that he would be there with the police and fire department and would shine a spotlight on my gear as I flew by. I did use my POH and briefed my passenger (a private pilot) about the situation if we had to do a manual gear extension and also about the situation should the nose gear collapse on landing or rollout. I placed my gear in the down position and did a fly-by at 100 FT and approximately 90 KTS. They informed me that the gear all appeared to be down and inner gear doors were closed (as they should be). I added throttle and climbed back to pattern altitude. I notified the guys on the ground that I was going to fly back around and do a fly by with the gear supposedly stowed. I did the fly by and they said all the gear was stowed and all gear doors were closed. I came back around with the gear down and had them verify this one more time. I climbed back to pattern altitude with gear down and then performed the best soft field landing in my 1;200 plus hours; keeping the nose gear off until the last possible second. The nose gear held fine and I braked very; very gently and taxied back to the hangar. I thanked the pilot and crew who helped me in this situation.

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.