gear down?...what was up?

[BigJETS]

Being that it was an American company 767, would seem unlikely that it would leave Chicago if it had a gear retraction problem. Most confusing is why we was where he was doing what he was doing. I dont mean to make a mountain out of a molehill Im just nosey. I havent slept since the incident and im a little cranky. AA wont return my calls and my wife is leaving me....

[fobotcso]

Okay, BigJETS I'll put you out of your misery. The guy was leaving it down to let the snow and slush blow off the gear before retracting it so that those little itsy-bitsy switches didn't freeze during the high altitude cruise and cause problems.

(Seriously, there was an ac I flew where we retracted/extended/retracted after take-off in such conditions to avoid just that. But I can't remember which one it was)

Okay... ODR in June... well...

[FJJP]

Could be that he had a problem with the hydraulics or in raising the gear. In these situations you stabilise at a sensible altitude and work through the checklists.

Or - he could have been flying gear down to a maintenance facility at another field to let the contract or company engineers fix the jet.

[BigJETS]

thanks for the replies. I suppose he could have been doing a maintenance run. Interesting that he came from the south while depratures from OHare at the time were northerly. There is a facility at the old Wurtsmith AFB in Oscoda MI (north-eastern lower peninsula) which was the direction he was headed. Im not sure American would use the services there or even what they do exactly there. I would think any such problem would be provided for at OHare.

Could it have been training related?