Narrative:

The first officer did our normal pre-flight and found everything to be normal on the aircraft. We completed all of our pre-flight checks and taxied out to the runway for departure. After rotation I called for the landing gear to be retracted; after the gear handle was in the up position we both noticed the left main gear unsafe red light was illuminated. We also had a slight vibration in the rudder pedals that felt like possibly the gear door wasn't completely closed. I was the pilot flying so I called for the autopilot to be engaged and told the first officer to take out the QRH and turn to the appropriate checklist. I then asked ATC if we could level off at 5000 ft MSL so we could run a checklist; and told them we had a problem with our landing gear. The first officer completed the QRH procedure and we then asked ATC for vectors while I contacted maintenance control / dispatch. After a discussion with moc about our gear issue; we all agreed to return to the departure airport and do a fly by so the tower could see if we had any sort of damage to our landing gear. So we did a visual approach on runway 27; and did a normal go around at minimums so they could see our gear. After they told us everything looked normal; we then proceeded to a box pattern back around to do an approach to a landing on 27. We landed without any incident and then proceeded to the gate where we were met by maintenance and told the arriving mechanics about our issue. Then dispatch; in cooperation with maintenance. Decided to change the aircraft. So we changed aircraft and then continued on to our scheduled as scheduled. The first officer did a fantastic job in assisting me with this problem. We worked together and worked with maintenance/dispatch to safely return without any further incident.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B717 Captain returned to the departure airport after the left main landing gear unsafe light remained on with gear handle up. QRH procedures were completed with the gear down prior to returning.

Narrative: The First Officer did our normal pre-flight and found everything to be normal on the aircraft. We completed all of our pre-flight checks and taxied out to the runway for departure. After rotation I called for the landing gear to be retracted; after the gear handle was in the up position we both noticed the left main gear unsafe red light was illuminated. We also had a slight vibration in the rudder pedals that felt like possibly the gear door wasn't completely closed. I was the pilot flying so I called for the autopilot to be engaged and told the First Officer to take out the QRH and turn to the appropriate checklist. I then asked ATC if we could level off at 5000 FT MSL so we could run a checklist; and told them we had a problem with our landing gear. The First Officer completed the QRH procedure and we then asked ATC for vectors while I contacted Maintenance Control / Dispatch. After a discussion with MOC about our gear issue; we all agreed to return to the departure airport and do a fly by so the tower could see if we had any sort of damage to our landing gear. So we did a visual approach on Runway 27; and did a normal go around at minimums so they could see our gear. After they told us everything looked normal; we then proceeded to a box pattern back around to do an approach to a landing on 27. We landed without any incident and then proceeded to the gate where we were met by maintenance and told the arriving mechanics about our issue. Then Dispatch; in cooperation with maintenance. decided to change the aircraft. So we changed aircraft and then continued on to our scheduled as scheduled. The First Officer did a fantastic job in assisting me with this problem. We worked together and worked with Maintenance/Dispatch to safely return without any further incident.

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.