Another Anti-Splat save...

My 9A was being landed by my uncle in the right seat for the first time last week, in somewhat gusty conditions and he was not used to the sight picture. He let it get very slow at about 3 feet altitude and it developed a high sink rate, I threw a gob of power in and pulled the nose up to arrest the fall but we still plopped down rather firmly. The Skyview showed only 1.7 G on the mains but the nose was rotating down rather rapidly and the nose gear hit hard enough to scrape the forward bottom of the fairing, and break off the aft half of the aft fairing leaving it on the runway behind us.

I pulled the cowl and did a real good inspection, no damage to anything I can find, but the nosegear leg does have witness marks on it from the Anti-Splat brace I installed during the build. I'm sure glad I bought that brace now...

Thanks Allan!

when you are two up and have plenty of runway, leave some power in to prevent getting too slow. especially important if you are flying with a newbie.

Interesting that you have witness marks. Have you inspected form them before this incident? I have never observed witness marks on mine after about 450 hours operating from grass.
I would not think that the Nose Job would provide any support for "drop-in" loading - Allan, could you render an opinion on this? My understanding is that the Nose gear provides support against backward bending caused from runway drag, or a pavement strike.

pa38112 said:

Interesting that you have witness marks. Have you inspected form them before this incident? I have never observed witness marks on mine after about 450 hours operating from grass.
I would not think that the Nose Job would provide any support for "drop-in" loading - Allan, could you render an opinion on this? My understanding is that the Nose gear provides support against backward bending caused from runway drag, or a pavement strike.

Click to expand...

... When you drop-in hard without the "Nose Job" installed, there are multiple forces at work. These forces will make the gear leg bend into an S shape. The lower portion of the gear leg just above the factory 45 deg bend, will bend in a rearward direction due to the force on the castor and wheel. If unrestrained it will keep going until the gear leg contacts the ground. At this point the gear leg will usually begin to roll up like a snail, and everything will snowball and ruin your day. The "Nose Job" when installed, interrupts this sequence of events and changes the dynamics completely. The lower portion of the S bend is restrained, prior to any damage occurring, and that energy is transferred to the top of the gear leg where strength is greater, and the bending action is more conducive to a good outcome. The witness marks are normal and expected in this type of event. It shows the product worked as designed. Thanks, Allan..

Inflate the nose tire to 50psi. Anything lower and you're asking for trouble.

Glad it worked for you Greg. I'm putting one on my 9a too.