Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 5; Flight Crew Total 210; Flight Crew Type 25
Distraction; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; General Maintenance Action
Human Factors; Procedure
Arrived at airport to fly my Comanche 260 after a complete pre-flight inspection I proceed to load my 2 passengers and gear and moved onto the pre-start check list. Once I arrived at the 'Turn on Master Switch' I notice the master switch was left on by another pilot. The Comanche 260 has an external jump port for a tug which was brought over by airport staff and attempted to start the plane with it. Then with the assistance of a jump pack the plane finally started. The line staff notified me to let the plane run for 15 minutes on the ground until the battery charged up enough and then fly. I waited approximately 15 minutes then moved down to the takeoff area to do my pre-flight run up and spent another 15 minutes doing a slow run up to let the battery charge longer. Then proceed to depart; rotated around 80 mph; then upon passing the end of the runway selected the gear up switch which resulted in a total power failure in the aircraft seconds later. I continued my climb out; and instructed my passenger to open the checklist to emergency failure list; and had the second passenger call the airport the get someone to check my gear position. I also had him call the nearest tower and inform them of our situation. We completed the emergency check list for electrical failure at 2500 feet; above the traffic pattern which was 1500 feet in case we had an engine failure or other traffic entered the pattern; with no success. We then proceeded to make a 500 foot pass over the field for someone to inspect the gear from the ground; the report back was that the gear was stuck half-way up. I climbed back out and proceeded to the emergency gear extension; checklist and we did it exactly by the numbers and got the gear locked into place manually. We spoke with ground via cell phone and did one more low pass to confirm gear was actually down. And proceeded in for a soft field landing in case the gear was not locked. In the process electrical power seemed to return to the aircraft; and we were able to use flaps again and radios. We landed without any issues. Take aways; from this. Buying a portable radio ASAP! Never flying on a dead battery; we should have removed the battery from the plane and charged it on a trickle charger for 24 hours and verified it was good with a tester before flying again. What we discovered post incident: On the Comanche 260 Aircraft it is a 2 position selector switch that is either going up or down that puts a massive draw on the alternator; thus requiring a fully charged battery to retract and drop the gear on the aircraft. When the alternator became overloaded in flight it stopped charging the battery and the battery lost all the juice it had and the plane's electrical system went dead due to the constant draw of electrical power on the motor that was stuck in the middle of retraction with no way to shut the motor off. The breaker for the landing gear cannot be manual pulled and turning off the master also cuts the charging power of the alternator in theory due to the design of the charging system leaving the one option of emergency gear extension. Once the motor was disconnected from the landing gear and the gear actually locked into place the gear motor stopped running because it was being told the landing gear was actually down and allowed the alternator to send power to the avionics again and charge the battery. Result was a successful landing; one destroyed battery due to being left on; brand new battery on order and electrical system will be inspected by A and P before returning to service. Contributing factors was my decision to fly the aircraft after jump starting. Never fly an aircraft after a jump start. Charge the battery properly first. And do not listen to the advice of others that goes against better judgment. Not meeting or flight is worth your life.
Piper Comanche pilot reported a loss of electrical power resulted in a manual gear extension and return to the departure airport.