knowing how vital it is to get the gear up, douglas made a nice over ride button to press if the gear has to go up and the plane "thinks" its on the ground.
oddly enough, in my scenario, that button would have become flush with the instrument panel if the plane "thought it was in the sky"
it is obvious now to me that the RAT probe heating on the ground was the symptom of a bigger problem...that the plane ''thought'' it was airborne.
turning off the heater was simply taking care of a symptom...but the full diagnosis was misunderstood...again this is a theory.