Dash 8 Series Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 175; Flight Crew Type 750
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
Upon departing; the gear was raised and the nose gear did not raise for about 60 seconds. During the 60 seconds; it sounded like the gear was struggling to come up; at the time we had a gear unsafe light. It went out; we informed ATC we would be returning to field and that we would need vectors back. After calling the FA; informing passengers; and calling maintenance; we started our return to field. Upon the alternate gear extension; the nose gear did not extend. We went back to the east; got holding instructions; and the Captain called maintenance to work on seeing what we could to do get the nose gear down. After trying to pump the hydraulics (only for mains) he pulled the handle to extend the nose gear again; and the nose gear came down and locked. We proceeded back to the field and landed with no further issues.Not sure why it occurred; but I do know it was an issue in the past on this aircraft (read in logbook). After identifying the problem; we used the emergency checklist and also changed PM/PF so that we could accomplish the checklist appropriately.
Dash-8 First Officer reported returning to the departure airport after experiencing problems with nose gear retraction and extension.