ALERT: Gear-up light comes on with doors open!

[Ernie Martin]

Yep, you read that right. Happened Sunday in what could have been a tragic accident.

Took off in my 1973 337G out of Miami, headed over open waters to the Bahamas. All looked well, but after a while it seemed as if the climb was more sluggish than usual. I had a full load and wondered if I had miscalculated it and was overloaded. I looked around, engines looked good (manifold pressure, RPM, fuel flow, EGT), yellow gear-up light was on. Nothing seemed amiss. Could the props be losing "bite"? Am I indeed overloaded?

We reached cruise altitude, configured aircraft (cowl flaps, RPM) and when airspeed settled I noticed I was about 25 MPH slower than usual, doing 125 instead of 150. Looked again at everything, found nothing, and was now considering turning back -- remember I'm over open waters, nowhere to land in an emergency.

That's when I looked out to the small convex mirror I have under the left wing, pointed slightly backwards so I can see the rear engine (born of my concern about a possible engine fire back there). The smaller, longish main gear door under the cabin was partially open and -- worse -- the larger, parachute-like door behind the cabin were mostly or completely open.

In my aircraft it's not an engine driven hydraulic pump that operates the gear but an electric power-pack, and the circuit breaker had popped after the gear had stowed but before the doors had closed. The troublesome point is that the design turns the gear-up light on when the gear -- not the doors -- are locked.

Had I lost an engine, it's doubtful I would have been able to maintain altitude with the doors open. Please be alert to this. In my case I simply reset the circuit breaker and the doors closed without a hitch. Gear function was normal on landing and yesterday on both take-off and landing.

Ernie