What could anyone complain about with this product? At my next inspection I think I will put on the “Lip Skid” too.
Mostly I object to a product being sold by using fear, uncertainty, and doubt to make it seem like a good idea.
The facts, near as I can tell:
- Both aircraft with and without anti-splat have tipped over on their back
- Both aircraft with and without anti-splat have collapsed the nosegear without tipping (prop strike, engine teardown, etc)
- Both aircraft with and without anti-splat have had hard landings where the pilots have thought "wow, that was really close, I almost folded the strut"
Not facts, but observations:
- Some of the tip-overs have been on recently-completed aircraft, which *may* correlate to low time, or low experience, on type
- People speaking against anti-splat tend to be the long-time VAF members, which *may* correlate to higher time, or higher experience, on type
- There are a lot more aircraft flying without anti-splat than with, so it's not unexpected that there would be less (in absolute quantity) tip-overs with anti-splat equipped aircraft than without
- With the large number of factors at play in each of these incidents, it is next to impossible to definitively say that having anti-splat is better or not... Strip roughness, approach speed, PIO, braking, tire inflation, soft/short field technique, time/experience on type, etc.
But this is exactly what makes it a great product. It might be great, and you can't prove it's bad. And there's no such thing as bad publicity, so the more we talk about it, the more the Anti-Splat name is kept in everyone's minds.