Narrative:

Was asked to relocate an aircraft. Aircraft just came out of paint shop; and was intended for export. Before flight was told by the owner that the gear was reported as having a leak in the gear but flew fine. Inspected aircraft for the leak but found no evidence of a leak; and aircraft just came out of annual. Owner operator was present throughout the preflight and process and was on board aircraft. Based on visual inspection and (exporter owner) owner's lack of concern and the recency of the annual inspection. It seemed reasonable that there was no problem and the aircraft was airworthy. However I did think it prudent to fly with the gear down to destination at reduced speed. Anyway after takeoff and out of habit I retracted the gear and immediately caught myself and reversed the gear handle to down. As soon as we turned crosswind the oil filler door popped open on the left engine; in consideration of the reduced cooling I decided to come around and land and close that door. After touch down and during roll out the left landing gear gave and retracted. The aircraft veered to the left as the left wing tip dragged on the pavement and slid off the runway and into the grass/sand and came to rest. There were no injuries or damage to the main structure. Pilot owner plus one passenger walked off without injury and unharmed. Lesson learned do not fly an unfamiliar aircraft if there is any reported or observed no matter however mild discrepancy till it was checked out by a mechanic. Certainly was a bad day.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: After takeoff on a ferry flight; a PA-31 oil filler door opened so the piloted returned to the departure airport where the left landing gear collapsed. The aircraft was just released from a paint shop.

Narrative: Was asked to relocate an aircraft. Aircraft just came out of paint shop; and was intended for export. Before flight was told by the owner that the gear was reported as having a leak in the gear but flew fine. Inspected aircraft for the leak but found no evidence of a leak; and aircraft just came out of annual. Owner operator was present throughout the preflight and process and was on board aircraft. Based on visual inspection and (exporter owner) owner's lack of concern and the recency of the annual inspection. It seemed reasonable that there was no problem and the aircraft was airworthy. However I did think it prudent to fly with the gear down to destination at reduced speed. Anyway after takeoff and out of habit I retracted the gear and immediately caught myself and reversed the gear handle to down. As soon as we turned crosswind the oil filler door popped open on the left engine; in consideration of the reduced cooling I decided to come around and land and close that door. After touch down and during roll out the left landing gear gave and retracted. The aircraft veered to the left as the left wing tip dragged on the pavement and slid off the runway and into the grass/sand and came to rest. There were no injuries or damage to the main structure. Pilot owner plus one passenger walked off without injury and unharmed. Lesson learned do not fly an unfamiliar aircraft if there is any reported or observed no matter however mild discrepancy till it was checked out by a mechanic. Certainly was a bad day.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.