Spinner breakdown

Way back in 2019 when I was still running through some handling and performance testing , I was on a routine flight out over the southern coast of Jersey when.the engine suddenly began to feel rough.

It starts with an almost imperceptable rumble .. you cant hear it (above the wind noise) but you feel it through the stick …

Then, because you are around 1,000′ AND over water ..everything is exaggerated … now you are looking at every instrument .. every movement…handling … visual checks from the cockpit .. anything to give you a clue as to what is happening.

The flight had started as a planned 4 or 5 circuits .. cooling had been an issue in the early days and im not sure if by this flight I had finally cracked cooling by upgrading the oil cooler matrix by some 70% size!

Now, habing just banked left over Noirmont onto the (distant) base leg for 26 at Jersey .. I was rapidly running out of ideas as to what might be causing the rough running

Engine speed certainly seemed to make ot worse .. and slowing down was initially ok but then equally vibrating

As I had about 3 minutes to touchdown, I called that this would be a full stop .. but elected not to say why … this was to come back to bite me days

Tower cleared me to final and the usual tight curved approach had a bit more push this time as I was keen to get down. Flaring over the absolute threshold to a nice gentle touchdown and still running rough as I taxied off to the club.

Pulling up outside the club i revved up and down and it shook through rhe frame but all Temps and Pressures spot on. Throttle back to tickover and felt better then mags off.

Jumped out and walked around to see if i had oil smeared down the side or some part of the body flapping and nope.. there it was .. right up front .. a smashed spinner

The immediate thought was call the tower and, about 30 seconds after landing I did. Advising that I appeared to have had some sort of bird strike or failure and didnt appear to have ALL the nose.. assuming the rest of it was now bobbing in the sea off St Aubins.

The tower acknowledged and I continued to dismantle the now shredded spinner… to reassemble and see just how much was missing.

A short time later the crash crew arrived as id seen them perform a runway inspection..and showed me a small (2″ ×3″) piece of fibreglass

The classic Olive Green colour made it obvious where the ancestary came from !

They said they needed to keep it as evidence

Wind forward a couple of days and i was invited by the very friendly ATCO to visit the tower for a chat !

What followed was quite a lesson – to all parties.

Having explained where exactly I was when it happened (ie 1,000′ ove the sea and a mile or two out) i was asked why I hadn’t declared a PAN.

Id said it didnt feel life threatening BUT yes, it was probably tainted by pride as well, you dont wnat to admit that something you’d put together had something wrong

I asked what would they have done if I HAD declared a PAN and they said, simple, we hit the button .. and because of where you are you will get crash crews coning from St Helier along the front (assuming you aren’t going to make the runway).. at the same time crash crews will assemble at the threshold of 26 to equally meet the ‘crash’

Although that all sounded even more intimidating they quite rightly.pointed out thats what the PAN is for and, lets face it, I had no clue what was actually wrong ..or if id make it.

The 2nd significant learning on this was the honesty shared by the tower.

On my arrival and curatiled circuit, they were none the wiser as to why id stopped and was heading back to the club. 30 seconds later when i advisdd of the spinner break up, the (new) controller made a note and continued to vector in a light twin who was quite close behind me on touchdown.

The thought was that he was quite close and wouldn’t want to go around.

Post the Twin landing, another aircraft was cleared to depart just as the Senior ATCO asked why the Ranger had come in early 😳

On hearing the issue, the runway was immediately closed to check for (the soon to be found) FOD !!

This now forms part of both local GA training ..ie talk to the tower ..in good and not so good moments ! And also part of ATCO training to assume the worst and check for bits

If id been in the light twin and so close to touchdown a call to go around would have been no problem vs a tyre blow out or similar.

All good learnings 😀