RE: George Miller F-4 Build - also, welcome George!
I have never heard of such a thing with Spring Air Retracts. I have known Bill and his wife since Christ was a cowboy. They are the nicest people you will ever meet. Considering the amount of kits I sold that required his retracts and never one complaint from one customer about getting the retracts. I am still using spring air, still ordering them, and still getting them almost immediately.
Something must be going on here.
I have to call Bill about some other items tomorrow and I will look into this and get back to you.
I do suggest you hang in there. These retracts are so superior to any other you will fine, They will not cost you a arm and a leg, be over engineered, or just plain fail on you.
Like I have always told others. When something goes wrong with your retract set up, and you loose air, they come down !!!!! Can't count the amount of aircraft I have seen on their bellies with Robarts and the likes. Just last week at our Fan Fly was the last time I saw this.