Uncle was right but 1pm is generous, sun alone kills it by noon.

This is the same trap people fall into with a lot of kitchen gadgets, they buy the thing and then assume it cooks everything the same way. Air fryers are really just tiny ovens with a strong fan, so anything that needs hot oil to set up, like a wet batter, is never going to work no matter how long you leave it in there. It is the exact same reason you can't deep fry in a toaster oven, the heat source is different so the rules are different. Dry coating plus a little oil spray is the only path that makes sense, and honestly it gets you pretty close to the real thing anyway.

My brother in law quit a $95k job at Boeing after 11 years to open a BBQ joint in Broken Arrow. Lost his ass for the first two years but now he's happier than I've ever seen him. Point is, some people can walk away and some can't, and you won't know which one you are till you're standing in the doorway.