Cracks in Spinner

[Kenny]

I don't know if this has been discussed before, however, whilst doing the two hundred hourly on my 912s Savannah which is fitted with a four blade Brolga prop and Cummins spinner I noticed several cracks on the spinner, one about 20m long and the other about 10m long.

It has always been kept tight with absolutly no movement and is one thing I keep an eye on to make sujre it is tight, however I haven't particularly been looking for cracks during my walk round.At first I thought the cracks were only scratches until further inspection.

What adds a bit of urgency to this matter is that I know of two other incidents with the same brand of spinner one of them at the same strip that I fly out of . his spinner was also on a Brolga prop fitted to a Lightwing powered with a Rotax 582.

The pilot removed the spinner to see if it was repairable and then flew the plane with the spiggot still attached (this is an alumineum rod aprox 15mm thick and about 160mm long) after landing he noticed that the spiggot was missing and there was a big chip out of his prop.

The other incident I know of also involved a Savannah which was a much more serious event where the spinner came off in flight breaking one of the prop blades , the plane was just flyable with only a touch of power and had to make an emergancy landing befor the engine tore away from its mounts

I would encourage those with spinners fitted to check them regually for cracks also I will not be fitting another to my Savannah and will have to put up with it looking even more agricultural.