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Aerotek cylinders - dry cycling.

I bought a couple of cylinders from Aerotek for my hydraulic spoilers and
cycled them numerous times with air to test the integrety before closing
wings and manually to get the setup just right. Probably a hundred times or
so more - just to see them move (dumb).  Result :  I had two leaking
cylinders.  The good news is that Aerotek sent me extra gaskets for them and
the repair was fairly simple - even with cylinders tucked down into the
wing.

Another interesting leak was in the gear down lock piston on one of the
retraction cylinders (IVP).  I called Vern and he said I could return the
cylinder for repair and that some of them had been put together incorrectly.
I started going ballistic, contemplating pulling the entire landing gear
mechanisms apart and just before Vern had to call 911 for me, he decided
that the experts there felt I could replace defective gaskets in place.
That fix turned out to be fairly straightforward as well.

Good luck with your cylinders.

John Barrett