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I had two different procedures, one for my normally aspirated '65 337 that I owned before, and one for the '73 P337 I have now.
On the '65, the gear was run by a hydralic pump on (if I remember right) the front engine. If that engine failed during the retraction cycle, and did not continue to windmill enough to keep pumping fluid, I'd be down an engine with the doors hanging out. As I recall, the single engine rate of climb on that airplane with the gear doors open (not with the gear down, with the doors open) is something like -200 fpm. Guess I should call it rate of descent. Anyway, on that airplane I waited until I had a good amount of altititude, maybe 800' or so, before I put the gear up. And pumping the gear up during an engine failure at less than 800' AGL is too much to ask of someone single pilot, or at least of this pilot.
I use to have a running argument with John Killeen at Recurrent Training Center about this. Cessna's official approved training (from RTC) says "positive rate, gear up" on all Skymasters. But I tried it both ways, and the gear being down with the doors closed has very little actual effect on climb performance. But if the gear doors stuck open, you are going to land soon.
For my '73 with the electric power pack, I use "positive rate, gear up" as my procedure, just as RTC teaches. If the electric power pack on this airplane fails at the same time as an engine, it will be a very bad day indeed...
Kevin
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