PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250; Flight Crew Total 1600; Flight Crew Type 50
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged
Procedure; Aircraft
My friend and I [his instructor] were flying another friend's piper arrow practicing commercial maneuvers. The whole flight up till landing was fine. When we came back in for landing I had told him my part was over; he was PIC and in charge of the rest of the flight. So he came in for landing like normal. He put one notch of flaps in to slow us then I saw him extend the gear lever and I peeked over and verified three green for the gear. He continued the approach and put the rest of the flaps in. As he pulled into the flare about to touch down we heard a scraping noise and he immediately pushed the throttle full power and pitched up for a go around. After departure he ran the emergency checklist and determined that a circuit breaker for the hydraulic pumped had popped and as soon as he pushed it in the three green came on again. Subsequently after the gear came up fully the three green went out; and when he put the gear lever back down they all lit up again. The entire approach I kept my eye on the circuit breaker to make sure it didn't happen again. He landed safely and normal. After parking we inspected the piper arrow and concluded minimal prop damage and a little damage to the sheet metal on the left flap. This had happened on a previous flight in the same arrow but it was on takeoff and the gear stopped mid cycle. He pushed in the circuit breaker and it came up. We did inform the owner/operator and he assured us it was fixed and not an issue. In conclusion; we were baffled as to why or what even happened to cause this malfunction. We're not sure if the gear was fully extended or not. We both verified three green at least once. One thing is for sure; the circuit breaker for the hydraulic pump did pop and he isn't exactly looking at that for every last ding.
I met my CFII for commercial flight training. We performed two landings before the event occurred.At approximately 300 FT AGL I quickly glanced down to check if prop was full; mixture was full and three green and added a final 10 degrees of flaps. I absolutely remember saying these things out loud to my instructor. 'Prop full; mixture rich and we've got three green.' He said; 'keep your eyes on the runway; stop looking inside.'The Arrow seemed to descend lower and lower and I suddenly realized something wasn't right. I decided to go around and began to apply full power and pitch up. About a second after that action we heard a faint scraping noise underneath the aircraft.Since we saw three green and agreed that he would keep a close watch on the circuit breaker we did not declare an emergency and landed safely but very softly and ready to pull up if we didn't feel things were right.Finally the big problem was discovered--the very tips of the three blades of the propeller were bent over at 90 degrees. They did not fly off and the engine had been running smooth with no loss of power or RPMs. This was a surprise since we never felt a prop strike.The owner has had gear issues in the past. Specifically with his lights not all coming on and his mechanic said 'don't worry about it; they're down even if the lights don't all come on. The connection that sends a signal is just a little loose.'I believe that I have learned a valuable lesson about retractable gear aircraft: 1. This airplane had a plastic door/cover almost like a glove box in a car that covers the circuit breakers from view. I think the door should never be there. Furthermore; I think every checklist should include checking the breaker and it should be brightly colored for easy identification. Checking the breaker should be done on final. Also quickly glancing down to see three green 100 feet before touch down just in case a breaker pops.2. Never fly an airplane that pops a breaker without having an A&P give a definitive answer.3. Keep the gear alarm system engaged always. Most pilots don't like it because the gear will automatically drop if they pull some power back during maneuvers; etc. This is obviously something I will NEVER do.4. Quick thinking. I believe that as soon as you suspect something is not right it's always a good option to do an immediate missed approach without hesitation. This action  prevented the prop from hitting hard; stopping the engine and causing an actual 'gear up landing.' I believe this was a prop strike and not a gear up landing.5. Pending a thorough maintenance investigation; I think an AD may be necessary for this make and model to prevent accidents.
Two friends flying a Piper Arrow suffered a prop strike and some skin damage when the landing gear failed to extend normally while still providing three gear safe lights. A go-around was conducted after the first impact with no obvious performance decrement although an after flight inspection revealed the tips of all three propeller blades were bent backwards 90 degrees and some minor flap damage resulted.