Jump to content

Spinner damage


Recommended Posts

Made a fuel stop after a 2 hour leg yesterday, taxied out after getting fuel for a quick run-up and noticed a bit roughness when I increased RPM. I allowed the prop to spin at 1900 for about 20 seconds and the roughness evened out so I assumed I was good to go. Was 100lbs shy of gross and the climb out seemed normal for being heavy. When I was pulling the plane into the hangar I noticed the damage. Mechanic says he can fabricate a new piece but I'm wondering why this happened and if anyone has had this issue before? I'm guessing I need to have the prop balance checked as it seems logical it would cause this sort of thing but maybe not.

The scrape on the prop isn't very deep. Mechanic says maybe a little filing and some paint and should be good to go.

Capture.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Make sure that scratch in the prop blade gets smoothed out. It might not seem like much, but a sharp scratch is like the cut in the side of a single dose pack of Advil or a ketchup pack and significantly lessens the amount of force it takes to tear through metal. Same goes for any cuts that might have appeared on the spinner. I bet you’ll be checking this in preflight from now on. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can buy that piece. Probably easier than making one.

It looks like a crack started at one of the nut plate rivets. The crack propagated until it cracked all the way through the plate. The long side of the plate bent up and caught the wind and started whipping back and forth scratching the prop.

That didn't happen overnight. Perhaps we should all do a more through preflight inspection of the spinner.  Is this the blade that normally stops down? If so it can easily be overlooked.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I completely agree it didn't happen overnight. I do a visual scan on the blade as I run my hand around it to check for something uneven but I honestly rarely look at the inside of the spinner area. I'm not sure I would have seen that area without removing it even if I was looking. I know the prop was removed at annual a few months ago for a crank seal issue so I would like to think that would have been seen at that time. Ugh.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.