B737 Next Generation Undifferentiated
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Distraction; Confusion; Troubleshooting
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Aircraft; Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure; Company Policy
On takeoff the gear would not raise. We cycled gear handle several times checked Circuit Breakers (CB) remained in local area as we coordinated with Maintenance; Dispatch; and ATC. Maintenance suggested we check the Manual Gear Access Door (Access Door); before we got to that point in the checklist. I pressed down on the door and it worked. Gear was retracted; we coordinated re-release back to our filed destination; cleared back on our flight plan and completed the leg. How this happened. After all checklists up to push were completed we were delayed to wait for connecting passengers. The Captain made a remark about how dirty the cockpit was. That remained me of a situation I had on a previous flight. I was doing review ahead of recurrent training and upon looking at normal procedures from Safety Check through Shutdown Check. I thought I would open the access door for Manual Gear. I couldn't! It was sealed shut by all the gunk; dirt; and dried liquids. I wrote it up upon landing. In retrospect that should have been a reportable event. So on this day as I was relating the story I pulled the door up. It was difficult and required a second tug; sure enough gunk was present. I stowed the door and eventually off we went. Apparently the door was not sufficiently seated and our result happened. My technique on preflight is to stand on the door as I initialize the FMC and ACARS; so it was down at preflight. Evidently whatever gunk precluded easy opening prevented me from seating the door from my seated position. It would be prudent to insure the cockpit cleaning checklist addresses this issue.
A B737 landing gear would not retract after takeoff until Manual Gear Access Door was fully closed. The Access Door was opened by the First Officer during preflight; but not completely closed.