PA31 pilot reports failure of the nose gear to retract after takeoff and also to extend to the down ...

Narrative:

Departed; retracted landing gear; transit light stayed lit and handle never returned to up neutral position. Nacelle mirror verified that the nose gear was only midway up. Tried recycling gear but it didn't lock down either. Put handle back up; reported to ATC 'gear wouldn't retract and returning to land'. On downwind for the approach (IMC) I used the checklist to perform 'emergency gear extension'. Three green indicated; reported this to ATC and landed without further event. Post flight revealed a simple mechanical failure of nose gear actuator.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA31 pilot reports failure of the nose gear to retract after takeoff and also to extend to the down and safe position. The flight returns to the departure airport and the 'Emergency Gear Extension' checklist is employed to successfully extend the nose gear prior to landing.

Narrative: Departed; retracted landing gear; transit light stayed lit and handle never returned to Up Neutral position. Nacelle mirror verified that the nose gear was only midway up. Tried recycling gear but it didn't lock down either. Put handle back up; reported to ATC 'gear wouldn't retract and returning to land'. On downwind for the approach (IMC) I used the checklist to perform 'Emergency Gear Extension'. Three green indicated; reported this to ATC and landed without further event. Post flight revealed a simple mechanical failure of nose gear actuator.

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	1070700
Time
Date	201302
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-31 Navajo/Chieftan/Mojave/T1040
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Climb
Component
Aircraft Component	Gear Extend/Retract Mechanism
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

PA31 pilot reports failure of the nose gear to retract after takeoff and also to extend to the down and safe position. The flight returns to the departure airport and the 'emergency gear extension' checklist is employed to successfully extend the nose gear prior to landing.