Incident Details
On July 1, 2014, at about 1455 central daylight time, a Beech A36 airplane, registered as N136EL, performed an intentional wheels-up landing on runway 12L at San Antonio International Airport (SAT). The pilot and three passengers were not injured. The aircraft sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. The airplane was registered to Angel Brothers Aviation Ltd. and operated by the pilot under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and the flight operated on a visual flight rules flight plan. The flight originated from Baytown Airport (HPY) in Baytown, Texas, at an unconfirmed time.
Pilot Actions
During the flight, the pilot extended the landing gear but did not receive a gear-down indication for the left main landing gear. The right and nose landing gear lights indicated that those gears were extended. The pilot made several unsuccessful attempts to extend the left main gear. He advised the SAT air traffic controller of the problem and decided to land the airplane with the landing gear in the retracted position.
Aircraft Examination
Post-landing examination revealed that the left main landing gear retract rod had fractured and buckled near the landing gear extension motor. The rod eye at the end that attached to the gear motor had fractured, while the bearing remained attached to the gear motor arm. The retract rod was constructed from a steel tube with a fabricated link at the end that attached to the motor. The link was composed of two formed steel plates riveted together and welded to the end of the tube. The fabricated link was bent about 90 degrees in two places: the first bend was through the eye that held the bearing, and the second bend was about five inches farther outboard, forming a "Z" shape. Two of the three rivets that connected the link plates were missing; the third, farthest outboard, was intact. The steel tube was bent about 5 degrees, 20 inches from the inboard end. Examination of the remaining landing gear components revealed no anomalies. The only preimpact damage evident was the damage to the landing gear retract rod.