Baron 58/58TC
Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 22.5; Flight Crew Total 702.6; Flight Crew Type 15.7
Distraction; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Ground Event / Encounter Gear Up Landing
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Human Factors
I performed a preflight of the aircraft prior to the instructor arriving. He was running late. I pulled the Baron out of the hangar; leaving the tow bar on the nose. Then I pushed another airplane back into the hangar. There was about 30 minutes delay while I waited for the instructor; and when he did show up with a passenger; we agreed to get going. I showed the passenger how to get into and out of the airplane and use the seat belts and then jumped into the cockpit; the instructor boarded immediately behind me and sat in the right seat. I went through preflight; run up and took off; and completely forgot to do a ground check and forgot the tow bar was still on the nose gear. We both commented to each other we smelled burning rubber on the take-off roll and lift off; but it faded and we continued on.I proceeded at the controls to perform some air work; which involved steep turns and slow flight. When I attempted to lower the landing gear; the nose green light did not come on and there were a couple loud clunking sounds that indicated a problem. I immediately recalled the tow bar and knew the nose was damaged. My instructor took control of the aircraft. We then proceeded to do a series of attempts to get the nose gear down; which involved steep turns; positive and negative G maneuvers without success. We then talked to Tower; alerted them to the problem and performed a low pass for the Tower to check our gear. They confirmed the tow bar in place. With no other options; my instructor performed soft field landing. He pulled mixtures to cut-off and attempted to hold off the nose until the last minute. When the nose touched down; we slid a distance of about 150 more feet and stopped. I turned off the fuel for both fuel tanks; turned off the magnetos and master and departed the aircraft after my instructor and remaining passenger. In retrospect; I have a couple lessons to learn: One - always to a ground check immediately prior to boarding. Two; if something is not right on the runway; pull throttles to idle and stop.
BE58 pilot left the towbar on the nosewheel and executed a landing with the nose gear up.