How does ‘using the can’ work on a light 4 place aircraft?

Bill Watson

Bill Watson

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MauleDriver
On Facebook I was asked how ‘the can’ works on a small airplane. Made me think of a recent flight in the Bahamas and with ForeFlight’s help I was able to put together this hopefully informative video.


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Lndwarrior said:
A new contender for the most useless post of the year.
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Thank You!

For me it was a useful exercise in reviewing Foreflight’s flight logging capabilities. I remembered the flight and wanted to see if it told the story. It did a pretty good job I thought.


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I’m not giving you clicks for your click bait post. We are all aware of monetized YouTube, that Monkey dude being our most prolific click me for money poster.

Post a statement of Q like a real forum user….
 
Clicks = money.

click bait…. A teaser to get someone to click on your YouTube so you get paid.

Maybe you are new to the game, I dunno. In any case, I really dislike people that post a tease to get us to open their vid for views. Not all of us are mindless drones.
 
Unit74 said:
Clicks = money.

click bait…. A teaser to get someone to click on your YouTube so you get paid.

Maybe you are new to the game, I dunno. In any case, I really dislike people that post a tease to get us to open their vid for views. Not all of us are mindless drones.
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Not even close. Pure aviation

…but obviously not funny or entertaining in the least.


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I’m getting better at avoiding all the videos posted for viewing. And, since this one stirred the pot, I guess I made another good decision.
 
Very carefully and with some difficulty.
 
Zeldman said:
I have no clue what that was about.

All I know is ''using the can'', commonly called an empty Gatorade bottle, is used very carefully...
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Well, I was being overly decent. I know there have been multiple threads about ‘range extenders’, Gatorade bottles and what have you for relieving oneself on long flights in small planes. Initially I thought everyone did it or least was prepared to do it but in fact, many people are uptight about urinating in a bottle, especially with others on board.

Note: Age tends to make resistance futile!

Anyway, on some random FB thread someone was surprised to see someone eat a large breakfast, drink a couple cups of coffee and get onboard an airliner. Some people didn’t get it but seniors immediately recognized the danger. Coffee is a big time digestive stimulant that with advanced age, becomes irresistible.

Then someone asks if (airline) pilots crap in the 1st class head. I commented that I’m a pilot and would kill for a head on board my little flivver. Wouldn’t you?

Then I remembered a recent flight where my passenger presumably drank too much coffee, needed relief, and no Gatorade bottle was going to do the trick.

This was over water and a couple hours from our destination but a quick turn and ‘emergency’ landing did the trick. Then it occurred to me to go back in my Foreflight logs and see if the flight was accurately documented. It was and a took a video of what was now, to me, a somewhat amusing flight. I’m too easily entertained I guess.

Now if you read all that, this is truly a most useless post and thread and I apologize. Did you hear the one where the Citation pilot announced on CTAF that he coming in and would any traffic identify themselves? Jerk!


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TrueCourse said:
I’m getting better at avoiding all the videos posted for viewing. And, since this one stirred the pot, I guess I made another good decision.
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FYI, The video is harmless - just a Foreflight log with some narration. And a complete waste of time.


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OK, since you’ve been cool about the flak you’ve received I watched it. Yes, you are easily entertained , but it was not click bait. Didn’t know you could create the historical stuff like you did, so I learned something. And since this stop was in the Bahamas, it actually looked like a drug run drop off.
 
Bill Watson said:
many people are uptight about urinating in a bottle, especially with others on board.
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In Alaska I was flying a 207 in a holding pattern waiting for the visibility to go up to SVFR minimums. I could feel that one of the 5 passengers was a little restless. After we landed, he held up 2 full barf bags, saying he really had to go.... I was just glad he didn't leave the full bags in a seat back...
 
Needling above notwithstanding, I appreciate the real synopsis vs the clickbait. I don’t watch many videos as reading is much faster than watching in my opinion. In this case, most pilots know the GA options for dealing with bladder distress and a note about why pilots would find it interesting would probably get some attention (won’t stop the video needling outright). Kind of a know your audience thing - “Learned about ForeFlight track logging after I had to divert in the Bahamas (bladder code red).” I am way more interested in ForeFlight and the Bahamas than a diversion or bladder issues. Dunno if it will help much but good luck.
 
Bill Watson said:
Thank You!

For me it was a useful exercise in reviewing Foreflight’s flight logging capabilities. I remembered the flight and wanted to see if it told the story. It did a pretty good job I thought.


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I thought it was cool, Bill. Thanks for posting. Makes me want to try displaying one of my aerobatic flights that way.

BTW, appears you did a hammerhead just before landing. Ummm, is that authorized in an RV-10?
 
eman1200 said:
this is the greatest video on the internet I've watched all day.
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Agreed.

Well, it's the only video I've watched on the internet today, but it was perfectly good. Just a minute long, no advertisement, and as others have mentioned I learned something, or actually two things: Foreflight offers a way of presenting a flight that I didn't know about, and airports in the Bahamas have bushes near the runway.
 
Ed Haywood said:
I thought it was cool, Bill. Thanks for posting. Makes me want to try displaying one of my aerobatic flights that way.

BTW, appears you did a hammerhead just before landing. Ummm, is that authorized in an RV-10?
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I saw that too. I think it was just some glitch in the data.

Just to be clear and possibly end this mildly entertaining thread, we don’t stop for bladder distress.

We have tools for bladder distress. The gel packs work well for men and women though I prefer the Little John Portable Urinal myself. When reclining in a racing sailplane I preferred an external male catheter. What you don’t want to do is dehydrate yourself to the point where it effects performance. Take a can.

No, this was coffee induced digestive distress and that ain’t happening in my plane. Nope!


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eman1200 said:
this is the greatest video on the internet I've watched all day.
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Kinda reminded me of the minecraft videos my kids watch; just needs the little picture in picture webcam video and a gamer headset and you're ready for twitch ;)
 
We used to do that in the Army only we’d pump the collective while they were outside doing their business. They’d get back in with **** all over their uniform…good times.
 
Shouldn't one point the airplane *away* from the bushes, not towards them?
 
Ed Haywood said:
View attachment 106420
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That’ll work, but this avoids confusion. Confusion could ruin one’s day in several ways.

…and it’s ergonomically correct.
76ecd6ce2f29b00e274d3f49934a274b.jpg



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Velocity173 said:
We used to do that in the Army only we’d pump the collective while they were outside doing their business. They’d get back in with **** all over their uniform…good times.
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My buddy who was a C5 flight engineer gave me a tour of beast. Besides a cockpit there’s a whole apartment up front for the crew. And in the rear above where all the cargo goes there’s a cabin like on a small Regional jet. The crew cabin and passenger cabins aren’t really connected except through the cargo deck.

I was told that anytime you see a crew member take the long walk to visit the passenger cabin, they are simply obeying C5 rule one; no crapping in the crew can!


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Zeldman said:
I have no clue what that was about.

All I know is ''using the can'', commonly called an empty Gatorade bottle, is used very carefully...
Click to expand...
… and make sure you choose a flavor other than lemon lime, as the color might result in tasting something unpleasant
 
After 20 years in the Army, I have significant professional experience in the use of Gatorade bottles. I did 2 stints in a unit that specialized in Arctic and Alpine operations. You NEVER crawl in your sleeping bag without a G bottle. Nothing worse than waking up at 3 am and having to post hole through waist deep snow to the designated relief area in your long underwear. And yes, ALWAYS sniff lemon-lime Gatorade before chugging.

Also, I never pass up an excuse to post this pic:

snow helo.JPG
 
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Velocity173 said:
We used to do that in the Army only we’d pump the collective while they were outside doing their business. They’d get back in with **** all over their uniform…good times.
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Completely unrelated to the thread…and your post really but it made me think of some stories my dad told me.

One of which was he and a buddy were flying very early generation NVG’s in south AL. Two ship of Huey’s they were both PIC’s. They found a guy spot lighting deer by his trailer in the woods. His buddy (an ethical hunter we’ll call Joe) got mad and swooped in to disrupt him and send the deer running. The guy turned his spot light onto Joe’s cockpit disabling his NVG’s and then ran into the trailer. Now Joe was really upset and provided some skid to trailer contact. They RTB’ed and discussed it all over drinks.

Next day they were called in as the “poor” trailer inhabitant called about the incident. My dad (higher ranking) tells Joe not to speak and he’d handle the conversation. When questioned about the incident my dad says they were practicing low level NVG ops in a rural area when a guy spotlights Joe shutting down his NVG’s at which point he black hole recovered the UH-1 expertly and the Army was lucky Joe saved the ship. He deserves recognition for his valiant effort.

At this point Joe, with even a more southern draw than my Georgian dad says aw hell sir that ain’t how it went. That son of a bia was out spotlighting and I buzzed the deer off when he turned it at the cockpit and I flipped them up, got my bearings and beat in the roof of his f’in trailer. :)

The stories my grandfather (infantry WWII), Dad (Army Helo pilot), Uncle (F15E first gulf war) and other Uncle (Army spec ops pilot) have told me could fill a book.
 
Radar Contact said:
Completely unrelated to the thread…and your post really but it made me think of some stories my dad told me.

One of which was he and a buddy were flying very early generation NVG’s in south AL. Two ship of Huey’s they were both PIC’s. They found a guy spot lighting deer by his trailer in the woods. His buddy (an ethical hunter we’ll call Joe) got mad and swooped in to disrupt him and send the deer running. The guy turned his spot light onto Joe’s cockpit disabling his NVG’s and then ran into the trailer. Now Joe was really upset and provided some skid to trailer contact. They RTB’ed and discussed it all over drinks.

Next day they were called in as the “poor” trailer inhabitant called about the incident. My dad (higher ranking) tells Joe not to speak and he’d handle the conversation. When questioned about the incident my dad says they were practicing low level NVG ops in a rural area when a guy spotlights Joe shutting down his NVG’s at which point he black hole recovered the UH-1 expertly and the Army was lucky Joe saved the ship. He deserves recognition for his valiant effort.

At this point Joe, with even a more southern draw than my Georgian dad says aw hell sir that ain’t how it went. That son of a bia was out spotlighting and I buzzed the deer off when he turned it at the cockpit and I flipped them up, got my bearings and beat in the roof of his f’in trailer. :)

The stories my grandfather (infantry WWII), Dad (Army Helo pilot), Uncle (F15E first gulf war) and other Uncle (Army spec ops pilot) have told me could fill a book.
Click to expand...

:D I didn’t know your dad flew in the Army man. I was at Rucker for 4 years so I hit all the same training areas in ole A-211 that he did. Lots of deer at night there. Lots of wild hogs too.
 
Velocity173 said:
:D I didn’t know your dad flew in the Army man. I was at Rucker for 4 years so I hit all the same training areas in ole A-211 that he did. Lots of deer at night there. Lots of wild hogs too.
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I remember living there when I was younger during an IP stint he did. Long story short, Vietnam was raging and his dad (fought Normandy till Battle of Bulge where he was gut shot) dropped him off day he turned 17. Told him to listen to the sergeant and not volunteer for anything. After his enlistment he finished HS, went to College then OTS. Flight school, flew OH58 and Hueys primarily. Retired O-6.
 
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