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We're all here to learn or help others learn so stay with us.

Kevin1963 was spot on when he made the NASCAR reference. If you've ever seen an Indy car crash you know what I mean. The car disintegrates to keep the driver from 'feeling' the energy. The force of the impact is transferred all over the car. In your nosecone scenario, a plastic one will disintegrate but it will cause less energy from hitting the engine whereas an aluminum one will transfer most of the energy to the engine.

You're doing a great job about asking questions here so keep it up. The way I see it you learned 2 lessons here. The first one is about nose cones and the 2nd one is about preflighting. That means checking your connections to make sure the battery won't come loose. There are a lot of other things to check too, so search for preflight checklists and make it a habit of thoroughly checking everything out before you take off.

Good Luck!