It is however possible that the Arrow you were flying was 20-30 years old and a victim of UK's "aerosol can" maintenance brigade. That kind of thing does not work on retractable gear - eventually it will give trouble. One can maintain an old fixed gear dog with aerosol cans but RG needs to be lubed properly.
By the way how do you put the blue box around a quote?
10540 - you are right about the age, not sure about the aerosol can, the culprit was metal fatigue, maybe incorrect lubrication was a factor...
Anyway back to the Cirrus - I still definately prefer fixed undercarriage when you still get great performance and reasonble fuel consumption.