Narrative:

As I entered the pattern for landing; I lowered the landing gear lever to put the gear down and noticed that there was no hydraulic pressure and the gear did not come down on their own and lock into place as they normally do. I raised the landing gear lever to the up position and tried again with no change in the lack of hydraulic pressure; so nothing happened. At this time I checked the landing gear light bulbs worked and they did. They just weren't giving a gear down and locked indication. I then referred to the emergency section of the manual and followed the instructions. And I notified tower of my issue and declared a [critical situation]. I then did a low pass by the tower to get their opinion of the gear situation from their vantage point. I then asked for and was given space to the east of the airport to sort out the issue. Attempted to use the back-up hand pump for energizing the hydraulic system and that didn't work either. There seemed to be no hydraulic fluid. I then pulled the emergency gear unlock release pins on the cabin floor but still didn't get three green gear down indications; even after yawing and slightly g-loading and unloading of the aircraft. At that time I did another low approach by the tower and they said that the gear was down but not fully extended. So; I went back to the east of the airport and did additional yawing and g-loading and unloading and was able to get the main and nose gear locked and three green lights on. I then did one more low approach and the tower confirmed that all three landing gear seemed to be down and locked. I came around and landed safely without incident. After parking I asked a local mechanic to inspect the aircraft and we determined that all the hydraulic system seemed intact and no hydraulic fluid was lost. The mechanic also confirmed that the aircraft seemed safe enough to fly back to the home base; with the gear down and locked. The maximum gear extended speed in the aero-commander / meyers 200D is 210 mph indicated and I stayed well below 140 mph indicated during the entire flight back and there were no other issues along the flight back.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Aero Commander Meyers 200D pilot reported the landing gear failed to extend; so the emergency unlock system was used.

Narrative: As I entered the pattern for landing; I lowered the landing gear lever to put the gear down and noticed that there was no hydraulic pressure and the gear did not come down on their own and lock into place as they normally do. I raised the landing gear lever to the Up position and tried again with no change in the lack of hydraulic pressure; so nothing happened. At this time I checked the landing gear light bulbs worked and they did. They just weren't giving a gear down and locked indication. I then referred to the emergency section of the manual and followed the instructions. And I notified Tower of my issue and declared a [critical situation]. I then did a low pass by the Tower to get their opinion of the gear situation from their vantage point. I then asked for and was given space to the east of the airport to sort out the issue. Attempted to use the back-up hand pump for energizing the hydraulic system and that didn't work either. There seemed to be no hydraulic fluid. I then pulled the emergency gear unlock release pins on the cabin floor but still didn't get three green gear down indications; even after yawing and slightly g-loading and unloading of the aircraft. At that time I did another low approach by the Tower and they said that the gear was down but not fully extended. So; I went back to the east of the airport and did additional yawing and g-loading and unloading and was able to get the main and nose gear locked and three green lights on. I then did one more low approach and the tower confirmed that all three landing gear seemed to be down and locked. I came around and landed safely without incident. After parking I asked a local mechanic to inspect the aircraft and we determined that all the hydraulic system seemed intact and no hydraulic fluid was lost. The mechanic also confirmed that the aircraft seemed safe enough to fly back to the home base; with the gear down and locked. The maximum gear extended speed in the Aero-Commander / Meyers 200D is 210 mph indicated and I stayed well below 140 mph indicated during the entire flight back and there were no other issues along the flight back.

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.