RE: Retract servos
Well, the servo is hooked up to the gear through some sort of linkage I assume. The servo is not directly hooked up to the gear.
Same thing with all your control surfaces. Your servo may be maxed out at 180*, but your control surfaces may have only moved a fraction of that. Your servos are not directly hooked up to your control surfaces similar to how it is not directly hooked up to the retract gear.