B737 flight crew with a mechanic on board report inability to raise the landing gear after departing a contract maintenance facility. The First Officer used the override lever to raise the gear but when the flaps were retracted the takeoff/altitude warning begins to sound. The air/ground relay circuit breaker was used to silence the horn and the flight continued to destination.
Synopsis
B737 flight crew with a mechanic on board report inability to raise the landing gear after departing a contract maintenance facility. The First Officer used the override lever to raise the gear but when the flaps were retracted the takeoff/altitude warning begins to sound. The air/ground relay circuit breaker was used to silence the horn and the flight continued to destination.
Narrative
My company flew me to ferry an aircraft just leaving out of a phase check. I was the flight mechanic dead heading with the front end. During the preflight checks and sitting up front on the jump seat everything seemed normal. Taxing and takeoff also normal until the Captain said 'positive rate' and it was time for the gear up. I noticed the First Officer paused for a quick 2 seconds before moving the handle to the up position but I didn't think anything of it since he didn't mention anything. Once flaps were moved to '0' the aural warning sounded. My reaction was to quickly scan the cockpit instruments and overhead for any discrepancies. From what I remember everything seemed normal and I didn't notice any signs of something wrong. For at least five minutes the aural horn was sounding and it couldn't be extinguished until the circuit breaker is pulled. This was my first time in a situation like this; it was frustrating trying to think clearly with the horn sounding over and over again. After 5 minutes the Captain read the QRH and showed me the procedure that calls for pulling the aural warning and air/ground relay circuit breaker. We agreed to pull them and so we did. After that he asked the First Officer if he had to manually override gear handle and he said 'Yes'; then he asked me if I think we should continue and I told him it was up to him; if he preferred we can continue and I will trouble shoot on the ground. So we continued. After that I told him I'll start looking at the manual for troubleshooting. When I checked the maintenance cabinet where we store our manuals on CD's they were missing. Apparently the repair station used them during the phase check and it wasn't put back. After that I went back to the cockpit to tell the Captain. He then shows me what the QRH says the problem could be which is either an air/ground logic or ground spoiler bypass problem. I ran to the back to verify the spoilers weren't deployed and were in the retracted position. After an hour or so everything else was normal including landing. On the ground; I did a visual inspection of the right main landing gear to check for anything out of the norm; so far good. When I went back up to the cabin I told the Captain I had to call Maintenance Control because I had no manuals and needed to troubleshot the problem. He told me that he was not going to write it in the logbook. I know if I call Maintenance Control he would ultimately have to write it in the logbook. So I just couldn't leave the airplane without doing anything so I had him verify the air/ground logic with me. I put the airplane on air mode and the aural horn (take off warning) turned off and when I put it on the ground it came back. This tells me that the airplanes logic was working. At the time it hadn't occurred to me the problem was also the landing gear override. I'm still trying to think how I missed that; I think it was the confusion up front with the horn and the First Officer not saying anything when he manually overrode it that had me focused on the aural warning. On the next leg; the same thing happened and this time it was a different Captain flying the aircraft. Once on the ground I called Maintenance Control and advised them of the problem. The new Captain put the item in the logbook as well. The company requested a Special Ferry Permit to fly it back to where the maintenance was done. I was the Maintenance Rep and we found the right main teleflex cable out of adjustment thus making the target for the air safety sensor out of limits. This repair station changed this teleflex cable during the phase check. Since I was not there at the time I couldn't tell you if they adjusted it the right way but as for this when I was there I made sure everything was within AMM limits. After readjusting the cable; adjusting the air safety sensor and multiple gear swings we corrected the problem. My reason for disclosing this is because I should have known better and documented the problem the first time. A couple of days later I found out that according to the QRH; the Captain should have landed preventing all of this but he is not the only one to blame. Thank God this was not something that could have ended in a fatal accident but it serves as a reality check for me and I can assure you that something like this will NEVER happen to me again. My license is very valuable to me and is what feeds my family.
Second reporter narrative
After takeoff the landing gear handle would not retract. I pulled the lever latch trigger and raised the landing gear after commanded; 'Gear Up'. After the flaps were retracted we started getting the cabin altitude; gear warning intermittent horn. We looked at the non-normal checklist and complied with the items with the exception of landing at the nearest suitable airport. The thinking was that the aircraft thought it was still on the ground and was giving us the horn for that reason. After completing the checklist; we felt as though it was a minor problem and it could be fixed at the destination station. There were no pressurization problems or any other indications that the flight could not be completed routinely. When we landed; the Captain and the Mechanic preformed a number of checks and deduced that the problem had been fixed. I believed that this was the end of the problem. I really didn't think this was anything that required a write-up until I got a call from the Captain saying I should probably write a report to self disclose what happened. This flight was very routine after the initial problem; which we felt we fixed by checklist compliance. I wasn't privy to what happened on subsequent flights. I don't know why the maintenance problems occurred; but as far as the CRM part; I pulled the gear handle by engaging the lever latch without asking the Captain. I should have advised him that the gear would not retract and asked him if I should have engaged the lever latch to raise the gear. We should have employed the checklist before we raised the gear; but we didn't. We used the non-normal checklist after we got the warning horn. We agreed to continue to the destination after we completed the checklist. This problem usually effects the pressurization and in this case the aircraft was pressurizing normally. We felt there would be no problem continuing on to our destination. Absolute compliance with the checklist would have prevented this incident.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.