I have thought of a scale retraction for high wing Cessnas ever since I got my Royal Skymaster and TF 182 although the 182 is already built as a fixed gear version.. I even drew up numerous sets of drawings that I figured would work but I have no experience with a lathe or mill to make the pieces.

You need a two part action with the first part dropping the gear out of lock and then pulling them aft into the fuselage., Then you need the opposite action to occur to unfold...ie: the wheels drop down staight and then they spread and lock. There are some sequencing air valves sold that allow this to occur. One set raises the gear and then closes the gear door and then opens the gear door and drops the gear. This would be what is needed for the Cessna gear to work.

You build a set of u-shaped metal tangs to which the gear are suspended to so they hang down with gravity. You then have an air cylinder that, when extended, pushes the inside ends of the gear legs down and a cam goes over center to lock the gear down and out. Mount the tangs/gear/air cylinder to a milled gear block that is bottom pivoted which goes from straight up and down to zero degrees forward when pushed by another air cylinder.

When you flip the retract switch, the tang mounted cylinder unlock the over center lock and pulls the gear ends up which allows the LG to fold down. Then, the air sequence valve activates the second cylinder that pulls the gears up into the fuse. Switch back, the second cylinder drops the legs straight down and then the tang cylinder forces the gear to spread out and the cam lock ensures the gear won't fold on a hard landing (you don't want just air pressure holding the gear spread out.)

Anyway, hard to desribe, I have the idea in my head, I have drawn and redrawn the gear numerous times but toss them as unbuildable by me.

So, anyway, that's my idea...run with it...LOL!!!

Don