Incident Overview
A 1,461-hour instrument-rated private pilot encountered a landing gear malfunction during an instrument flight departure. After raising the landing gear selector handle, the green down-indication lights extinguished, but the amber up-indication lights did not illuminate. Attempts to use the manual gear pump were unsuccessful.
Pilot Actions
The pilot continued the flight as planned, advising air traffic control of the situation. Multiple attempts to recycle the gear selector handle failed to produce a gear-up or gear-down indication. The pilot stated on the NTSB form 6120.1: "I elected to continue my planned flight to burn off as much fuel as reasonable, get as close to my destination as possible, and to reach good VFR conditions." Two low passes were made for tower personnel to visually assess the landing gear position. Tower reported that the left main and nose gear appeared down, but the right main gear appeared partially retracted and rotated.
Landing and Aftermath
The pilot landed on a 5,939-foot-long, 150-foot-wide asphalt runway oriented on a heading of 030 degrees. The airplane remained upright and slid off the runway to the right side as it slowed. The pilot egressed without assistance and was not injured. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector reported that the right main landing gear had collapsed, and there was structural damage to the right horizontal stabilizer and rudder.
Investigation Findings
Examination revealed a frayed wire on the landing gear squat-switch terminal, which prevented power to the relay switch that controlled landing gear activation. Weather conditions at the time included winds from 080 degrees at 8 knots, temperature 34°C, and altimeter setting 30.03 inHg.