The Anti Splat "Nose Job" a review

Thank you Mike for the insight and of course I am glad you are OK. The stock nose gear on 6/7/8/9 has always been less than ideal.The Anti-Splat system is a monumental improvement.In this case as describe by the pilot,low speed forward movement into soft soil (4 foot trailing ditch) loaded the spring gear enough to catapult the craft over on its back.The nose brace changed the dynamics of the flip(spinner was untouched)but not the outcome.A couple of RV-10s have off field landings and have not flipped,not enough to provide a convincing trend,time will tell Van had a reason to change the gear for the 10 and 14. Without a redesign of the 6/7/8/9 nose gear to a 10 style.The best options remain 1.Convert to TD ,Install the Anti-splat system its not a panacea it improves the odds for a safe landing.Vans should consider retrofitting a 14 style nose gear for the fleet for the reputation of the marque. With the big spring out front This problem will not go away! I held off buying my finish kit 5 years waiting for this,when Allen came up with the Anti-splat I could wait no longer and bought the finish kit this year.I understand the ramification of Vans fixing there design flaw.Its the one Big Disappointment I have with Vans Aircraft,They stepped up to the rudder They need to step up to the gear. An at cost deal would work for me,I want Van's to be in business a long time as I am very slow in putting this ship together.
Thanks,sorry for the rant!
Bob

Only 5 hours on my newly purchased 9A. Nose gear gives me concern, even with the fork mod. I might be the unlucky one here... or just old. But, I have had a Cessna 210 (on fire) go on its back... A Luscombe 8E on its back after engine failure... and powered parachute on an extinct volcano strewn with boulders... over on its side. None were any fun, but survivable. In the morning, I am going to be on the phone with Antiaerosplatter... and ordering the kit with no fairing. Will report any future misfortunes promptly.... or not.
And cool... he even has the lumbar support and gust lock I have been longing for. Christmas just around the corner.

flightlogic said:

Only 5 hours on my newly purchased 9A. Nose gear gives me concern, even with the fork mod. I might be the unlucky one here... or just old. But, I have had a Cessna 210 (on fire) go on its back... A Luscombe 8E on its back after engine failure... and powered parachute on an extinct volcano strewn with boulders... over on its side. None were any fun, but survivable. In the morning, I am going to be on the phone with Antiaerosplatter... and ordering the kit with no fairing. Will report any future misfortunes promptly.... or not.
And cool... he even has the lumbar support and gust lock I have been longing for. Christmas just around the corner.

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I have 9a and fly off of pavement. I did their bearing mod on nose only. You shouldn't need that other contraption unless you're landing with the gophers.

drmax said:

I have 9a and fly off of pavement. I did their bearing mod on nose only. You shouldn't need that other contraption unless you're landing with the gophers.

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.....Actually, his mishaps have been off field for the most part. Many things can happen when for instance the engine quits and a forced landing is required. A flat nose wheel also can get very interesting as well. In these and many other possible scenarios, the added safety provided by "The Nose Job" and "Lip Skid" will we a very desirable addition. Thanks, Allan....

PerfTech said:

.....Actually, his mishaps have been off field for the most part. Many things can happen when for instance the engine quits and a forced landing is required. A flat nose wheel also can get very interesting as well. In these and many other possible scenarios, the added safety provided by "The Nose Job" and "Lip Skid" will we a very desirable addition. Thanks, Allan....

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Allan,

Any update on the development of a "nose job" for the -12?

Regards,

drmax said:

I have 9a and fly off of pavement. I did their bearing mod on nose only. You shouldn't need that other contraption unless you're landing with the gophers.

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Somewhere on the Internet there's a video of a nosewheel RV taxiing on pavement--perhaps a bit fast--hitting an edge, and going head-over-teakettle. I ordered and installed all the mods.

Anti Splat Nose Job Saved My Plane

I can't express my appreciation enough to Allen for coming up with the nose gear brace. After a long winter of little flying, my wife and I flew out to dinner about 3 weeks ago. I was tired and not really in the mood to go flying but the weather was perfect. I hadn't flown for a couple of weeks so we went. I have a 1400 ft. grass strip at home. When we came back and landed it was as if we were landing downwind, but we were not. About halfway down the runway we finally set down and pretty soon it dawned on me that we may not have enough runway to get stopped. I also knew that if I added power at that late moment we would only be going faster when we got to the road. With the brakes locked up, full aft stict, and engine at idle we came to the little ditch and a sudden stop from maybe 10 to 20 mph. Neither of us were hurt in the least. The plane didn't flip over. We climed out, and I walked back to the hangar to get my tractor with a wrecker boom on the back.

Only after towing it back to the hangar did I realize that I had forgotten to put the flaps down. I won't make that mistake again!

Because of the Nose Job gear leg brace the gear leg bent back but not enough to get into the lower skin. The engine mount wasn't damaged except for the hole being elongated sideways by the 5/16 bolt at the top of the gearleg. Because the road is about a foot higher than the runway the prop was ruined. I did the tapered pin fix on the new gear leg so that fixed the hole. (Reaming that gear leg was a real experience!) I haven't checked the crank flange yet, but I'm installing my "spare" IO360-A1A engine which always ran smoother anyway! And I have a Whirlwind prop on order. I'm determined to make it a better airplane than it was before.

If you're flying a -7A or -9A please use the Anti Splat nose gear brace. Anyone can make a mistake. I have seen a perfectly good RV completely totaled even when the pilot did nothing wrong. That's why I installed the Anti Splat. Hopefully you won't have to thank me for the recommendation!

Dan Hopper
N766DH
RV-7A -- flying since 2004

Thanks for the experience report. Glad you didn't go over and had minimal damage. While I was building, I called Alan and said - "give me everything you have to keep me from going over". As I take lessons now, I am REALLY glad I did. I wish I could take the nose wheel off the Archer I am flying and stick it on my 9A!

Anti splat nose job

After the stiffener is fitted, dues he i-original nose leg fairing still fit OK?

Currently my RV9a has a relatively light weight JABIRU 5100 installed but this will shortly be replaced by a somewhat heavier O-320 (FP). The current nose leg had to be machined at the top to get it to fit the jab mount Only a few thou was milled off and the only problem I've had was a slight oversize in the diameter of the hole for the leg securing bolt, necessitating a close tolerance bolt and more recently a thick walled roll pin purely to eliminate shimmy. Having read the previous posts I guess I've been lucky since virtually all of my 345 landings have been on sealed runways with only a few on gravel and zero on rough unprepared surfaces. My experience is that the nose wheel does not hit the deck heavily when landing. Even though I've always been careful to hold the nose wheel off for as long as possible it has always contacted the ground quite gently
In addition to the brand new O-320 the anti splat brace on the new leg might even improve the saleability of the aircraft We'll see!

If you get "The Nose Job 2", it fits the original fairing. Otherwise you need their new fairing.

Follow up

Just re-read the entire thread. I posted two years ago about being on my back in two forced landing events. I put the brace on my 9A just after posting.
It has prevented a folded back nose gear once now... for sure. Thanks Alan !!
Very glad I have it installed. Wish I had complete control over all of my landings, but that just does not seem to be the case. (I do have the rabbit's foot in the survival gear bag though.... thanks for the suggestion)

I just received and installed the nose job 2 onto my RV-9a and I found the install to be easy.

I'd recommend not using that crazy extra spacer they supply. That part is really just a time waster in my opinion. Just use the actual bar itself to form that clamp to the gear leg.

The clamp went onto the gear leg with a quick hit from my palm. I didn't need any rubber hammer. If I was to do this again, I'd probably put some sacrificial butcher paper or something over the leg before hitting it onto the leg however. I had to touch up the power coat just a little bit from this clamp.

Overall I'm very happy with this nose wheel insurance although I never plan to use it.

oh - and yes, the stock fairing fits over this whole assembly just fine.