The light aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing at an airforce base north of Newcastle after circling the airport for nearly two hours.
The civilian King Air plane took off from Newcastle Airport at 8.30am on Monday and was headed towards Port Macquarie when the pilot noticed problems with the landing gear.
NSW Police superintendent Wayne Humphrey said the 53-year-old Queensland man piloted the plane above the airport hoping to resolve the glitch.
"As a result, it was determined the aircraft landing gear would not come back down and he stayed here and burnt off fuel," he told reporters.
"After some hours in the air, about 90 minutes burning off sufficient fuel, he made a textbook wheels-up landing."
Supt Humphrey said the pilot and two passengers on board, a 60-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman, all landed safely.
"It was a great result ... really well done by the pilot," he said.
"I could hear him on the air, he sounded very calm to me."
The shaken trio arrived safely back to the ground to cheers from the control room.
"We applauded, of course we did," Supt Humphrey said.
"Nobody got hurt (and) we're very happy."
The aircraft, which can carry about a dozen people, is listed as being operated by Eastern Air Services and was a short way into its flight to Port Macquarie, about 200km north of Newcastle, when the issue was detected.
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