Flying a civilian Skymaster without prop spinner

[kbecker]

Did they take the spinner bulkhead off before flying it without the spinner?

Kevin

[Jhogan0101]

No, was in place.

[mshac]

When I ran a flight school in Florida, we had a fleet of 172s. They had hundreds of hours per year put on them, and the spinners generally only lasted 2-3 years before they developed bad cracks. The bulkheads never seemed to fail, but the spinners would develop cracks that eventually could not be safely stop-drilled anymore.

Replacing spinners was so common that we kept a supply of spares. Often the instructors would do the swap with their students. I did several myself. There's really not much too it, just be certain to get the screws in tight so they don't vibrate out. The A&P would sign it off later. I don't recall him ever having any issue with the work that had been done by the instructor/student.

YMMV

[CO_Skymaster]

Thanks for answering the questions on this. I've decided it isn't as big a deal as I thought to just reattach the spinners. Just a lot of screws to add. The post was starting to turn into less about can you fly without a prop spinner and more what you can temporarily state can you fly if you have to fly to another field. Aren't there instances where an aircraft will not be completely airworthy, but you have no choice but to take it to another field for repairs?

I think that is part of what I was trying to find out. I talked to the FSDO and if the work is not finished soon, I'm going to have to find and A&P to review any panels I have to close to make sure the previous mechanic didn't take something apart that I don't know about. I'll let you know how it goes.

Karl

[general]

FYI an interesting side note some of the military had the prop Spinners covers and some of them did not