you're right about the def's of blue line and red line. I guess I was
just trying to make the point that pumping the gear down in the pattern
adds another potential problem to the scenario that might be magnified
by off center thrust. It would feel more comfortable to be above
pattern altitude, but I didn't feel like I had the luxury to climb and
take my time. I probably did...but my fuel guages went to zero when I
lost electrical, and although I "knew" I had over 40 gallons of fuel
left, I was really too nervous about everything to choose the best
course of action-- which would have been to circle up over the airport
to maybe 3000 agl and then pump the gear down. (If my fuel guages were
right and a bad fuel leak had developed I would still be ok if I was in
gliding distance of the airport)

Frank Ch. Eigler wrote:
"swag" writes:

[...] When the gear came out, the increased drag caused a loss of
airspeed, and I dropped below "blue line" for a short while. That's
not really a problem in the 337, but if I had been in a conventional
light twin, that might have been disastrous. [...]

You are probably mixing up the red (Vmc) & blue (Vyse) lines. Still,
neither is that bad if one has some altitude to spare and avoids being
hamfisted with the throttle.

- FChE