Narrative:

The incident occurred due to unknown issues with the nose landing gear. I was the pilot flying. Upon retraction of the landing gear; it was noted that the nose gear door remained open. Consulting the checklist; the airspeed was kept below 140 KTS and the landing gear was recycled. When the landing gear down was selected; the nose gear failed to extend. Maintenance was contacted at this point. They recommended doing the alternate landing gear extension. The flight controls were transferred to the captain and the alternate gear extension procedure was accomplished. The landing gear indicated down. A normal landing was accomplished to ZZZ without further incident. Identification: upon landing gear retraction; the nose gear door light remains illuminated. Response: noticing the door light; the problem was put off until safe altitude was reached (1500 ft AGL). Once reaching safe altitude; the checklist was accomplished and maintenance was reached.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A DHC-8-100 flight crew noticed the nose gear door remained open after takeoff. They ran the procedure and after doing an alternate gear extension they returned to their departure airport and landed without further problem.

Narrative: The incident occurred due to unknown issues with the nose landing gear. I was the pilot flying. Upon retraction of the landing gear; it was noted that the nose gear door remained open. Consulting the checklist; the airspeed was kept below 140 KTS and the landing gear was recycled. When the landing gear down was selected; the nose gear failed to extend. Maintenance was contacted at this point. They recommended doing the alternate landing gear extension. The flight controls were transferred to the Captain and the alternate gear extension procedure was accomplished. The landing gear indicated down. A normal landing was accomplished to ZZZ without further incident. Identification: Upon landing gear retraction; the nose gear door light remains illuminated. Response: noticing the door light; the problem was put off until safe altitude was reached (1500 FT AGL). Once reaching safe altitude; the checklist was accomplished and maintenance was reached.

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.