A DHC-8 crew departed with the nose landing gear extension door opens thus preventing the gear from retracting normally. After troubleshooting; the door was closed and the flight proceeded normally.
Synopsis
A DHC-8 crew departed with the nose landing gear extension door opens thus preventing the gear from retracting normally. After troubleshooting; the door was closed and the flight proceeded normally.
Narrative
The First Officer arrived late thinking he had three days off instead of two. I did his duties in an effort to leave on time. During preflight I saw parking brake pressure was low but usable. The First Officer arrived and we started boarding. We did the Originating Checklist checking the things I had completed before his arrival. On the Before Start I saw the parking brake pressure was 1400psi or so. I grabbed the pump handle and as I left the cockpit asked the First Officer to make sure the doors were down. I had to work down stream of the boarding passenger with about seven minutes before our wheels up time. I pumped and got a thumbs up from the First Officer. I returned to the cockpit and departed. On gear retraction got 3 red and a yellow handle. The checklist said any red call company. Selcal didn't work and relayed through Operations. Company called and asked us to check the door above the First Officer. He failed to close it when he dropped the gear doors to allow me to recharge the parking brake press. I should have known better. This happened to me in the early 1990s. The door is out of easy view of both pilots but that can't be changed. Perhaps a note on the emergency checklist covering three red on gear retraction.
Second reporter narrative
We took off and reached rotation speed; the aircraft rotated normally. I went to pull the landing gear up once a positive indication was noted and monitored the lights. Quickly I noticed that the proper lights were not extinguished; notably the red warning lights indication the gear unsafe. Subsequently I brought this to the Captains attention and he ordered me to run the Emergency Checklist. I noted that there was no checklist specifically pertaining to this configuration of lights. We then attempted to contact dispatch via SELCAL unsuccessfully. We notified Operations and the cabin of the situation. Operations was able to relay maintenance messages to us over the Operations frequency. After several suggestions as to what the problem could be; we were asked if all the emergency gear extension doors had been closed. I looked above and behind me and noted that the nose gear door was still open. This remedied the problem and we continued normally and on time. This event occurred due to a string of events on my part. First I was mistaken about the date and thought my trip actually started the following day; so I was notified by Crew Scheduling that I had a trip with a XA:00 report that morning. The time was a little after XA:00 when I received the call. I managed to get all of my things together last minute for a multi day trip and rushed to the airport and explained to the crew what had happened. After boarding the airplane and putting away my gear; we ran the originating checklist. I got the ASOS and Clearance and we subsequently ran the Before Start Checklist. During the Before Start Checklist; we noted that the hydraulic pressure for the normal break system was low approx. 1400 psi. The Captain asked me to pull the doors once more to insure they were all down; since he volunteered to go use the pump handle to increase the pressure. While doing this; I forgot to close the nose gear door and due to it's location (above and behind) subsequently forgot about it. I'm not really sure why I didn't immediately close it; perhaps fatigue played a part in it as well as trying to catch up to the situation as quickly as I could so that we could make an on time departure that I interrupted my normal flow. Ensure that the night before you know what day it is that your trip starts. Make sure not to disrupt normal flow patterns and be specifically wary when you suspect that you are fatigued. Take your time when running behind as well; make sure not to rush things since that is when careless things like leaving a gear extension door open occurs. A series of events like this is a classic formula for things to go wrong. Perhaps a note in the Emergency Checklist outlining this specific configuration would be helpful as well and avoid undo delay in future flights.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.