I am in Angeles City to do some flying out of Clark Omni in a Piper Seneca I. My first and only flight yesterday lasted as long as it took to confirm the malfunction, run the emergency checklist, decide how to proceed, and land. All of that still took an thirty minutes. I deliberately took my time so as not to rush things. The gear would not retract. I had three greens, red gear unsafe light, gear warning horn, one in the mirror on each of five attempts to retract the undercarriage.
I used the DECIDE model to guide my decision making and for practice.
- Detect the fact that a change has occurred.
- Estimate the need to counter or react to the change.
- Choose a desirable outcome for the success of the flight.
- Identify actions which could successfully control the change.
- Do the necessary action to adapt to the change.
- Evaluate the effect of the action.
I decided to do a low pass at RPLC and land there on their long, wide, and unobstructed runway. The Omni runway is short, narrow, and obstructed. I made a normal landing on 02L after a low pass and left the aircraft in the care of maintenance. I checked on the status of the Seneca later in the day. The gear had not retracted because of an electrical fault (something had eaten through cable insulation) that could not be fixed straight away. As the day continues it looks less likely that I will fly the Seneca again on this trip.