So out on a quick sunset flight in my 66E, I come into downwind and lower the gear, do my checks, and notice no green light. Of course first thing i do is pull the light and it comes on, so its in the switch. I pull on the handle and it is locked, so i disengage and re-swing the gear while still in downwind and presto green light, no worries.
Next day after 2 hour flight with family, have a perfectly timed let down, nobody around but decide to do a pattern anyway, enter my downwind and extend the gear and run my checks and again... no green light. Re-swung the gear again and the light comes on, but had a pretty good wind on the tail and threw me off on my pattern, so chose to go around, fly the airplane, and just keep the gear down. "Crisis averted" i comment to my wife on touchdown, she hadn't realized there was any problem!
My question is, can that switch wear out over time, or am i just getting lazy in getting the handle pulled up in the lock? I only have about 20 hours in the E, but nothing like this ever happened during check-out, and when I am going through my checklist, I always give that j-bar at least three good tugs, and it wasn't budging even with the light out.
Just had everything inspected and tension was within spec for the prebuy i did in July. Should I be concerned that the bottom is going to drop out on me....