Hi Anthony,
Recently we indavertly unlatched the deployment lever while taxing to depart from an airfield in a flight to return to our home base, and we retracted the gear after take-off... and heard a strange noise... and smell... and only after a few minutes (after extentending and retracting again the gear to understand what was happening) we discovered what was the problem...
After we figured out the situation, we secured the emergency gear latch and continued flight (after checking with other aircraft in the pattern that the gear was totally retracted). After an uneventual final landing at our base, we never had any issue with the gear again.
But now, after Reading your post, I doubt if we should double check the emergency extension system...
We will need to replace the Gear Back Up Spring in the next weeks (see my other recent post) so I believe that we should do all at a time.
Any tips to share?
Cheers!
Frederico