Scattering Ashes

luvflyin

luvflyin

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Luvflyin
Who’s done it? Who knows someone who has? Links on the subject? It’ll be from a C172.
 
luvflyin said:
Who’s done it? Who knows someone who has? Links on the subject? It’ll be from a C172.
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Didn't do it from an airplane, but from a boat in Florida. The state required us to be three miles offshore. You will need to check the laws of the state where this will be performed.
 
mscard88 said:
Haven't done it but others say to have a length of tubing that extends past the opened window, flexible pvc maybe.
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I have heard that as well. You'll need a length of pipe so that the cremains all get outside the airplane.

For those that have never dealt with the remains after cremation, while they're commonly called ashes they're more like sand than ashes.
 
I have the same request from my wife to scatter her mothers ashes. I remember reading a story and the fellow scattered ashes from a 172. He said the ashes sand blasted the horizontal stabilizer ruining the paint. I think U-tube has several videos on the subject.
 
I considered it, and rejected the idea. It requires sticking a length of something out the window, and even then I don't think you can guarantee human remains won't gonk your empennage. When I need to do so I'll just scatter the ashes somewhere nice.
 
There is a link on Cardinal Flyers online. There are several gotcha's to worry about.
 
steingar said:
I considered it, and rejected the idea. It requires sticking a length of something out the window, and even then I don't think you can guarantee human remains won't gonk your empennage. When I need to do so I'll just scatter the ashes somewhere nice.
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Just duct tape it along side the fuselage and past the tail?
 
Even the PVC pipe out the window, in the slipstream could be a little problematic. I like the idea of doing it from the ground.
 
mscard88 said:
Haven't done it but others say to have a length of tubing that extends past the opened window, flexible pvc maybe.
Click to expand...
My dad’s done it a few times. Last time was to reunite my grandfather with my grandmother near Sedona. He was the bombardier and I flew.

Best thing is to get one of those leaf blower trunk attachments and stick that out the door. We did it from the back of the
Lance. Might be trickier in a 172, but the important thing is to get the end of the tube down/ out away from the airframe. My dad actually had the ashes in a large coffee can with an insert of some kind that you could pull out and allow the ashes to then flow down the tube. Make sure the top of the container is vented and will all get sucked out with no lingering residue.
 
I dunno, but I’ve never really liked the idea of cremation, although it seems like that’s the direction that most folks nowadays are heading.
 
Ryanb said:
I dunno, but I’ve never really liked the idea of cremation, although it seems like that’s the direction that most folks nowadays are heading.
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My grandfather always had this fantasy of bailing out of a perfectly good airplane. Hard to do that with a full body!
 
A bit of trouble and elaborate, but here one way I found:

 
wasn't there a recent aopa article about this? dunno if it was aopa or someone else but I thought I read it recently.
 
mscard88 said:
Haven't done it but others say to have a length of tubing that extends past the opened window, flexible pvc maybe.

Click to expand...

I have experienced the Lebowski scene above. When my stepfather in-law died, he loved the ocean, so it was decided to scatter his ashes at sea. Maybe it was his idea, I don't know, but we all got on a boat and headed some distance off the coast of Santa Barbara and predictably, my mother in-law chose to scatter the ashes towards the most dramatic side of the boat, the side that faced the sunset. Of course taking no account of the prevailing winds, a good portion of dear ol' Dad ended up back in the boat! Many were horrified, but I was amused as I didn't really like the guy.

It wasn't as funny as the Coen brothers version, but very similar.
 
Lachlan said:
I like the idea of getting a good lungful of a loved one while flying. It’s like they’ll always be a part of you.
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Have you ever thought about rolling the ash and smoking it? You’d get a real good lungful of them that way...
 
AKBill said:
I have the same request from my wife to scatter her mothers ashes. I remember reading a story and the fellow scattered ashes from a 172. He said the ashes sand blasted the horizontal stabilizer ruining the paint. I think U-tube has several videos on the subject.
Click to expand...

Yikes! I wouldn't have thought of the sandblasting effect! Maybe this is a job best left to a drone. Maybe a new drone business. Ash scattering. o_O
 
Another solution:

Damn Ryan beat me to it while I was searching...

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Ryanb said:
I dunno, but I’ve never really liked the idea of cremation, although it seems like that’s the direction that most folks nowadays are heading.
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Cost, unfortunately.

A friend of mine passed away unexpectedly a few months ago. They barely had 2 nickel's to rub together. $5000.00 for a cheap funeral, $700.00 for cremation. And we had to pass the hat around to help pay for that.
 
The drone seems like a good alternative to a fixed wing airplane. You could always hire a skydiver.
 
Dav8or said:
I have experienced the Lebowski scene above. When my stepfather in-law died, he loved the ocean, so it was decided to scatter his ashes at sea. Maybe it was his idea, I don't know, but we all got on a boat and headed some distance off the coast of Santa Barbara and predictably, my mother in-law chose to scatter the ashes towards the most dramatic side of the boat, the side that faced the sunset. Of course taking no account of the prevailing winds, a good portion of dear ol' Dad ended up back in the boat! Many were horrified, but I was amused as I didn't really like the guy.

It wasn't as funny as the Coen brothers version, but very similar.
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Having been part of many burial at sea ceremonies, woe is the Officer of the Deck who turns the ship in the middle of the ceremony without paying attention to the wind. Seen one or two cases where some WWII vet’s ashes ended up all over the COs dress blues.
 
Fearless Tower said:
My grandfather always had this fantasy of bailing out of a perfectly good airplane. Hard to do that with a full body!
Click to expand...

Lol. I was having the I don’t wanna be on tubes and stuff and pull the plug if that happens and hope I go out doing something cool before it gets to that point. He said “go skydiving dad, I’ll pack the chute.”
 
I've done this once.

I used this approach: Attach the bag of ashes to a string, with the other end attached to something fixed in the plane (like the seat rail). "Gently" perforate the bag in a couple places with a knife, so that when you throw the bag out the window, it starts out intact, but when it gets to the end of the string (far from the cockpit!), the bag fails, and the ashes are released.

When I landed again, all I found outside the plane was a string with a little bit of tattered bag at the end of it. No ash on the plane inside or outside.
 
kath said:
I've done this once.

I used this approach: Attach the bag of ashes to a string, with the other end attached to something fixed in the plane (like the seat rail). "Gently" perforate the bag in a couple places with a knife, so that when you throw the bag out the window, it starts out intact, but when it gets to the end of the string (far from the cockpit!), the bag fails, and the ashes are released.

When I landed again, all I found outside the plane was a string with a little bit of tattered bag at the end of it. No ash on the plane inside or outside.
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I have done it this way too. Actually I hired a Waco and went along. They put the ashes in a paper bag and tied it with a string to something inside the airplane. When the time came, we threw the bag out and it tore when it got to the end of the string. I don't remember perforating the bag first. I think the weight of the ashes were enough to make it break.

On another occasion, I hired someone who specialized in scattering ashes. He had a Cessna 195 modified with a box slightly aft of the front seats and a tube sticking out the bottom. When arriving at the site, he poured the ashes into the box.
 
If the bag is plastic (rather than paper) and stronger, maybe perforate a little, just to make sure it fails before the string does.
 
We had an urn dropped off at the Unit back when we still had two Blawkhawks as part of an Attack Battalion...CQ accepted it from a Mrs Johnson and was told it was the ashes of CWO (Rank unknown). CQ collected no further information other than he was a helicopter pilot and wanted his ashes spread from a helicopter. The urn sat in flight ops for at least six months as everyone really wanted to know who it was...and for that matter whether we should do it. Long story short the Blackhawk guys finally decided to get it over with and flew the ashes...dumped them in a OGE hover and about half of Mr. Johnsen ended up in a cloud inside the aircraft....that Aircraft spent the rest of the day on the wash rack trying to remove Mr Johnson from every part of that aircraft...
 
Please, don't scatter my ashes from a plane. I have a fear of heights anyway, and I certainly don't want my last remains to be falling from a plane .

Weird that a pilot has a problem with heights. Oddly, being in an aircraft is the only time it doesn't bother me. Beyond that, anything above a 2-story building....can't even look out the window.
 
Ryanb said:
Have you ever thought about rolling the ash and smoking it? You’d get a real good lungful of them that way...
Click to expand...

I don't smoke- I never get that hot. An' chewin' is fer ign'int redneck yahoos, so I try to pretend I ain't one by avoidin' all tabaccky.
 
Dav8or said:
I have experienced the Lebowski scene above. When my stepfather in-law died, he loved the ocean, so it was decided to scatter his ashes at sea. Maybe it was his idea, I don't know, but we all got on a boat and headed some distance off the coast of Santa Barbara and predictably, my mother in-law chose to scatter the ashes towards the most dramatic side of the boat, the side that faced the sunset. Of course taking no account of the prevailing winds, a good portion of dear ol' Dad ended up back in the boat! Many were horrified, but I was amused as I didn't really like the guy.

It wasn't as funny as the Coen brothers version, but very similar.
Click to expand...


Call me uninformed, stoopid, whatever you like, but how in hell does one obtain a "stepfather in-law"? Did you marry your half sister?
 
luvflyin said:
Who’s done it? Who knows someone who has? Links on the subject? It’ll be from a C172.
Click to expand...

Several times, in both high- and low-wing aircraft. If you do not know what you are doing, you will have a cockpit full of ashes. Put the ashes in a bag and tie a rope to the BOTTOM of the bag, so that when you throw the bag out of the window (or through a forced-open door for low-wing...do not do this alone) the bag will trail aft. Do this in slow flight.

Bob
 
Lachlan said:
Call me uninformed, stoopid, whatever you like, but how in hell does one obtain a "stepfather in-law"? Did you marry your half sister?
Click to expand...
Your spouse has a stepfather.
 
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