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What to do when the landing gear doesn't come down?

If you fly complex aircraft enough, it is not a matter of if this will happen, but when.   I wish I could tell you the story of how this was my first experience with having to troubleshoot a landing gear system while flying an airplane through the skies, but it happens to be my 6th time getting to deal with it.   

Tips for Dealing with a Landing Gear Issue

When you put the gear handle down, and things don't work as you expect them to, it shouldn't be a surprise to the pilot.   You should have trained for this, but more importantly, you should practice in your head while at home with your eyes closed.   I've sat at home going through every kind of emergency I can think of while sitting on my couch with my eyes closed.  I do it over and over again until I feel like I can do it with my eyes closed.

This way, when it happens for real, I don't have to stop and ask, "Oh wait, what do I do now?"  Instead, I start to react as I practiced over and over again.

#1 This is Not an Emergency Yet

When you first put the gear down and you don't get the green lights you want.  This isn't an emergency yet.  Repeat after me... "This is not an Emergency!"   You still have fuel, the airplane is flying, and nothing is going to change that.  You have at least 30 minutes of fuel left (assuming you are down to your VFR Reserves right before landing).  If you fly like I do, you have a lot more than 30 minutes left.

Take the time to fly the airplane.  Add Power, Break off the landing, climb to a safe altitude using normal climb procedures.  Don't touch anything.  Don't grab for the checklist.  Just fly the airplane.  Most importantly, take a deep breath.  

#2 Plan your next steps

First I setup for a nice area that I can maneuver in.  I'll call ATC, let them know I have an unsafe gear indication and that I'd like to maneuver nearby to run the check list and trouble shoot.  Once I have established a safe airspeed at a level altitude, I'll reach for the checklist.  I'll admit, I don't always fly with a Check List in Normal Procedures.  But when something goes wrong, the checklist is front and center. 

I'll set up for a nice easy cruise speed.  I want an airspeed that is below the recommend airspeed for the manual extension, but fast enough that as the gear comes down I don't slow down to a stall.

First, I'll read the entire checklist from the first step to the last step (for this emergency).  I will take the time to locate the controls it calls out (Circuit breakers,  Emergency Handles, Lights, etc).  

#3 Execute Checklist

Now it is time to execute the checklist.  What you do here will vary depending on your aircraft.  For most of the airplanes I fly, the landing gear system is a gear driven system.  Which means I will be cranking, and cranking it a lot!   If you are flying an Arrow or some others, the emergency check list only takes a few seconds.  

Pay attention to the circuit breaker and how important that is.  I felt my Complex training didn't emphasize that enough.  In my Bonanza or Cessna 414 you have to be VERY careful to make sure the breaker is pulled when the emergency handle is engaged.   Failure to do so could result in the motor engaging when the handle is engaged, and let me tell you it will spend fast.  So fast that it will break your arm if it is near by and most likely break the entire landing gear system.  If that happens, you are now out of options to have a safe landing.

I will spend 30-45 seconds cranking the gear, and then pause.  When I take a break, I look at the aircraft performance.  How is my Airspeed?  Did the gear coming out slow me down too much?  How is the engine doing?  Are the Temperatures good, Do I still have adequate fuel?   Take a look at where you are in relationship to the airport.  Did you fly away from it?  Are you about to get in the way of other air traffic? 

Once everything is confirmed good and you are rested, go back to cranking for a little bit, and then take another break.

#4 Confirm the Gear is Down

If you had any kind of problem, even if you now have three beautiful green lights, take the time to get a second opinion.  The tower is a free service (for now at least).   Ask for a low approach and have them take a look at it.  They may not always be helpful (as I will explain below), but it is worth the look.

#5 Land Normally

Once you have done everything you can, it is time to land.  Be sure to land on your terms and not wait for the fuel to run out and land where gravity tells you to.  Make it a normal landing, do everything you always do.  Now is not the time to get creative and try anything for the first time.   Remember, if the landing gear doesn't hold... The airplane will be damaged, but you will be fine.   Just land the airplane and keep flying it until it stops.  

I've heard stories of people who try and shut down engines and do other things.  Don't do it.   Just land normally.  Your heart is already pumping, you're exhausted from running the check list.  Is now really the right time to add a second emergency to the one you already have?  Do you really want to attempt your first dead stick landing and gear collapse at the same time?  Sure the insurance company will save money if stopping the engine was the right call.  But it won't help you one bit.  You'll still have to pay the insurance deductible to fix the airplane.  It doesn't save you anything.  On the other hand, it could complicate the landing a lot and cause yourself to land short and maybe even turn the damage into a fatal incident.  

So what happened to us?

We were flying our Cessna 414.   Our flight was a simple one to just keep current in the airplane.  I took a friend of mine who is a single engine CFI who is working on his MEI.   We setup for a practice ILS approach into a local airport who's control tower had already closed.   We lined up and extended the gear as we intercepted the glide slope.  I felt the gear come down and I saw green lights at first and continued to configure the airplane for landing (still several miles on final).  A few seconds later I went back to the Gear light and noticed... Hey, 2 green lights isn't good enough.

I simply called out to my crew, "I have an unsafe gear indication, 2 green."   The next thing I did was the most important.  I did NOTHING.  I took a deep breath, ensured the airplane was still flying and I collected my thoughts.   I let my co-pilot continue to fly the airplane and I called out, "Continue flying, but do not land!"   Then I did my first memory item on the checklist.  Recycle the gear.  It goes up, and it goes back down and remains 2 green.   That is the only recycle I will allow myself.  I get one chance to redo it.  If it doesn't work, I don't try again.  I don't want to risk damaging anything more than it already was.  

Now we are doing a slow climb at a safe airspeed, but with the landing gear down (or partly down).  We fly off to the east of the airport.  Once I was happy with the cruise that the airplane was in, I ask my Co-Pilot to get the check list and start calling out the steps.  We go item by item, taking it nice and slow.  I asked him to confirm several of my steps.    We took some extra time at the step where it asked us to test the gear horn.  Sure enough, if I pulled the power back, there was no warning horn.   I even tested the light bulbs and confirmed the light was good.  

Now we have an option.  Land at the airport with the closed tower, or land at a larger airport with an open tower and a rescue team on standby.  It was a 15-20 minute flight to that airport with the landing gear down.  Always an easy answer for me.  Fly to where there is help.  North we went.  

During the 15-20 minute trip back I asked my Co-Pilot.  Is there anything else we should try?  Did we miss anything?   Cranking the gear had no effect.  The crank should turn 50+ times.  It only turn about half a turn before stopping.  

We setup to do a fly by of the tower and the tower had already dispatched the firetrucks.   We do our fly by and we first get the standard call that I expected to hear, "You gear appears to be down."  Then there was a pause, "... But it appears your left main gear (the one without a green light) might be bent backwards slightly."    The tower then clarifies that one of the two trucks thinks the gear was fine but the other truck also thought it was bent backwards.   This is great, I now have a 1/3 chance of a safe landing.

My gut was telling me the gear was down and it was fine.  Must be a broken wire or switch.   

We depart the pattern one last time to review the POH this time.  The POH didn't give us any additional clues or steps to try.  Then I call tower and say, we are ready to come back in.

The only different thing we did on landing is to land to the right side of the center line.  In case the left gear collapsed on us we would have further to drift before running into the grass. 

As it turned out, when we landed, the gear held just fine.   We taxied normally to parking.  For some reason the fire trucks disappeared and didn't even follow us (like they had the other 5 times despite me telling tower I was not concerned).   This time I actually declared an emergency and asked for the trucks?   Must of been a good episode of America's Got Talent on that night or something.

The next day our A&P went to the airplane to inspect and repair the landing gear.  As I had thought, it was a simple broken wire.  The gear was down, locked and normal.  Just the wire to that little green light had broken.   Turns out to be a simple and cheap fix.  Everyone on board was safe and I become more experienced and educated from the events.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is... If you don't have 3 Greens, it isn't an Emergency.  Not unless you do something else to make it one.   Take it slow, take your time.  When it is time to land, make it normal and you will be just fine.