N1854FCessna 210F · 1966

On June 2, 2017 about 1911 central daylight time, a Cessna 210F, N1854F, sustained substantial damage during landing at the Anoka County-Blaine Airport (ANE), Anoka, Minnesota. The pilot was not injured. The airplane was owned and operated by the pilot under the provisions of the Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the flight, which was not operated on a flight plan. The flight was departing at the time of the accident with Park Rapids Municipal Airport (PKD), Park Rapids, Minnesota, as the destination.

The pilot reported that the airplane's landing gear did not fully retract when he raised the gear handle during the takeoff climb. The pilot reported that he attempted to lower the landing gear using emergency procedures without success. He returned to ANE and continued to fly over the airport for about an hour to burn off more fuel, and to continue trying to lower the landing gear using emergency procedures. He stated that he tried manually extending the landing gear with the master switch in the On and OFF position, but without effect. The ANE tower controller confirmed that the main landing gear were in a partially retracted position, and that the nose wheel was in the down position.

The pilot conducted a full flap landing to runway 18. As the airplane settled onto the runway, the main landing gear retracted into the landing gear bay. The airplane veered off the runway and the right horizontal stabilizer was substantially damaged as the airplane skidded to a stop.

A Federal Aviation Administration inspector's examination of the airplane revealed that there was insufficient hydraulic fluid in the system to manually pump the landing gear into the fully extended position. The hydraulic hoses were original equipment from 1966 but they appeared functional. No obvious hydraulic fluid leaks were observed.

The pilot reported that the airplane's hydraulic system had been over pressurized by a mechanic a few years before the accident, and that there had been trouble with hydraulic leaks ever since. He reported that he added hydraulic fluid to the reservoir every 12 hours, but there were no aircraft maintenance logbook write-ups concerning the work performed. He reported that a few days before the accident, he had filled the hydraulic reservoir and then flew the airplane for about 45 to 60 minutes. He did not recheck the hydraulic reservoir after that flight.

The airplane's owner reported that the last annual maintenance inspection was performed on December 1, 2016, and the airplane had a total airframe time of 6,736 hours. However, the mechanic reported that he conducted the last annual maintenance inspection of the airplane on December 20, 2016. He stated that he gave the airplane's owner a maintenance entry on a "sticky note" that indicated that an annual maintenance inspection had been performed. The mechanic did not have a copy of the maintenance entry. The mechanic reported that although the airplane has a history of hydraulic system leaks due to an apparent over pressurization of the system by another mechanic in the past, during the last annual inspection, the landing gear operated satisfactorily with no obvious leaks. The mechanic stated that he was unaware that the pilot had to continually add hydraulic fluid. The mechanic stated that about a year earlier, he replaced an O-ring in the hydraulic filter screen.