Scattering Ashes

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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Lachlan said:
There are pics in this thread. You posted at least one of them. ;)
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I was referring to kath's post jokingly....:oops:
 
mscard88 said:
Another, cheaper solution:

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That oughta work. I’ve never opened the window in flight in a 172. Looks like it works. He said in a 172 it should just stay open. Is that true? I’d guess slowing down and increasing AOA would help. Oh yeah, I agree whole heartedly with him that “preferably you’re gonna have a Pilot.”
 
My brother in law blew $30K putting my sister in a hole in the ground in suburban Philadelphia that I doubt anyone will ever visit. Screw that noise!

I still have mama Steingar's cremains, and will have to do something with them in the near future.
 
mscard88 said:
I was referring to kath's post jokingly....:oops:
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And I referred to your post jokingly. Now what do we do? Post more pics? Use more words? Tip our heads to one side and slowly avert our gazes upwards, in pensive reflection? Or should we just start pouring the whisky because it's FRIDAY???
 
Lachlan said:
And I referred to your post jokingly. Now what do we do? Post more pics? Use more words? Tip our heads to one side and slowly avert our gazes upwards, in pensive reflection? Or should we just start pouring the whisky because it's FRIDAY???
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Do like I do, whatever you want to do.
 
Lachlan said:
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.
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You mean you've never puffed the magic dragon?
 
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?
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I don't know this crap very well so I guess I have it wrong. It was my wife's step dad.
 
steingar said:
My brother in law blew $30K putting my sister in a hole in the ground in suburban Philadelphia that I doubt anyone will ever visit. Screw that noise!

I still have mama Steingar's cremains, and will have to do something with them in the near future.
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We scattered both parents remains at sea. With my father we chartered a powerboat, whose captain was also a licensed funeral director. He handled the eulogy and did the actual scattering. For my mother, we chartered a sailboat, the scattering and the eulogy were do it yourself. Both worked very well.

When the container empties, any doubt that the deceased is no longer with you will be removed. It is a very final feeling.
 
I've done it once, in a C-182. My CFII at the time ran a pipe out the open door (open just enough to run the pipe out) and poured the ashes slowly into the pipe. The slipstream did the rest. I don't recall getting anything in the cabin. The pipe was a couple feet long and about 2-3 inches in diameter.

I like the idea of a rope tied to the bottom of the bag better now that I think about it.
 
Gerhardt said:
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.
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I’m the same. Even a tethered balloon was too much.
 
A good friend (a well-known fellow in Vancouver WA) and his passenger died a couple of years ago, when his AT-6 went into the Columbia River near Astoria as he was dispersing the ashes of the passenger's late husband. NTSB later uncovered some medical issues, but was never able to pinpoint a cause other than distraction during the maneuver. https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/R...ID=20160325X80001&AKey=1&RType=Final&IType=FA
 
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mscard88 said:
Yup a 172 window will stay open.
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Cool. What do you figure the best configuration would be? Slower would be better of course. What about flaps? Would full maybe give a better chance the ashes might get under the horizontal stabilator? Hey, do a test run for me next time your up with a student. If they ask “who was that” say it was your last student, his check bounced.
 
luvflyin said:
Cool. What do you figure the best configuration would be? Slower would be better of course. What about flaps? Would full maybe give a better chance the ashes might get under the horizontal stabilator? Hey, do a test run for me next time your up with a student. If they ask “who was that” say it was your last student, his check bounced.
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Hmmm why didn't I think of that! :D

Yeah slow down with or without flappers down. Just don't get too slow and stall and then fall into the ash field! ;)
 
I've got really good closure for mama Steingar, I just don't like human remains in my basement. Mrs. Steingar's mother is down there too. Ig.
 
Warlock said:
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...
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So the spouse just bypassed the veterans affairs folks and went straight to a unit???
 
Lachlan said:
Not once, never. Too afraid I’d have liked it too much. Besides, since I graduated college I’ve always had jobs that required clean drug screens.
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Just messing with ya. I never have either.
 
I usually remind folks of this one: NTSB# FTW98FA344

"On August 6, 1998, approximately 0750 mountain daylight time, a Cessna T210N, N2WF, was destroyed
when it impacted the ground while maneuvering at approximately 300 feet agl near Creede, Colorado.
The private pilot and his three passengers were fatally injured. The airplane was owned/operated
by Ford Farms, Inc., under Title 14 CFR Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for
the local flight which originated from Center, Colorado, approximately 25 minutes before the
accident. No flight plan had been filed.
According to family members, the pilot, his son, and the pilot's two brothers departed Center,
Colorado, en route to the Pearl Lakes Trout Club (elevation 10,400 feet), where several of the
family members owned fishing cabins. They stated that they believed the intention of the flight
was to spread the cremation ashes of their mother/grandmother who had been killed six weeks earlier
in an automobile accident. Family members reported that the brothers, in June, 1995, had scattered
the cremation ashes of their father over the same location near the family's cabin"
 
Ghery said:
I've done it once, in a C-182. My CFII at the time ran a pipe out the open door (open just enough to run the pipe out) and poured the ashes slowly into the pipe. The slipstream did the rest. I don't recall getting anything in the cabin. The pipe was a couple feet long and about 2-3 inches in diameter.
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Hunter S. Thompson had it right. I'd rather be shot out of a cannon than poured out of a pipe.

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/world/americas/ashes-of-hunter-s-thompson-blown-into-sky.html
 
Fearless Tower said:
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.
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Now I’ve got this idea in my head to write into my last wishes that someone has to run me through a leaf blower. LOL!
 
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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Being pumped full of formaldehyde and slowly liquefying in a box, doesn’t sound so great either. :)

mscard88 said:
Yup a 172 window will stay open.
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Unless you’re a jerk and step on a rudder pedal while they have a hand on the windowsill. :) :) :)

ejensen said:
I usually remind folks of this one: NTSB# FTW98FA344

"On August 6, 1998, approximately 0750 mountain daylight time, a Cessna T210N, N2WF, was destroyed
when it impacted the ground while maneuvering at approximately 300 feet agl near Creede, Colorado.
The private pilot and his three passengers were fatally injured. The airplane was owned/operated
by Ford Farms, Inc., under Title 14 CFR Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for
the local flight which originated from Center, Colorado, approximately 25 minutes before the
accident. No flight plan had been filed.
According to family members, the pilot, his son, and the pilot's two brothers departed Center,
Colorado, en route to the Pearl Lakes Trout Club (elevation 10,400 feet), where several of the
family members owned fishing cabins. They stated that they believed the intention of the flight
was to spread the cremation ashes of their mother/grandmother who had been killed six weeks earlier
in an automobile accident. Family members reported that the brothers, in June, 1995, had scattered
the cremation ashes of their father over the same location near the family's cabin"
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Man, took off from Center, CO. There isn’t **** in Center, CO. There’s a four way stop and that’s about it. :)
 
I'm thinking you put the remains in a thin walled container of some sort. Rig it with some kind of explosive. Light the fuse and toss it out the window. Perhaps use one of those fireworks mortars for a nice colorful person dust filled explosion.
 
Maybe they could make a thing like those bank bags that explode and cover the bereaved with ashes and dye to identify who stole the body from the crematory? :)
 
Fearless Tower said:
So the spouse just bypassed the veterans affairs folks and went straight to a unit???
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We had no clue..dropped off with a gate guard cq...we did not even know if he was even in the military...just an urn and a request...this was a NG unit.
 
Gerhardt said:
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.
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It’s not weird. I’m the same way and I have met many pilots that were scared of heights.
 
Zeldman said:
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.
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We just buried my mother last week. Over $8K, and that was not including the required vault. She and Dad already had the vault, he was already in it. So you pay thousands of dollars to be embalmed, put into a painted steel casket (I saw a nice wood version for about $6K), then buried in a concrete vault, underground... for reasons that escape me completely.

I never considered cremation either, until I saw what's involved in what should be a simple burial.
 
DaleB said:
We just buried my mother last week. Over $8K, and that was not including the required vault. She and Dad already had the vault, he was already in it. So you pay thousands of dollars to be embalmed, put into a painted steel casket (I saw a nice wood version for about $6K), then buried in a concrete vault, underground... for reasons that escape me completely.

I never considered cremation either, until I saw what's involved in what should be a simple burial.
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The funeral industry has a pretty good lock on burial requirements, many rooted in history and no longer necessary. But changing is tough. Colorado has changed law to allow natural burials. So far just on cemetary is set up for it but more will come. Cost is ridiculous as are the caskets.
 
DaleB said:
I never considered cremation either, until I saw what's involved in what should be a simple burial.
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At least here in new Mexico a body can be wrapped in a sheet and buried in the back yard as long as a fence is built around the grave site and the site is registered as a cemetery. I would bet there are plenty of non-registered grave sites on the reservations..

A friend of mine was digging a drainage ditch in his front yard and discovered 2 bodies. One was wrapped in plastic. Obviously they had been there a long time.
 
Zeldman said:
At least here in new Mexico a body can be wrapped in a sheet and buried in the back yard as long as a fence is built around the grave site and the site is registered as a cemetery. I would bet there are plenty of non-registered grave sites on the reservations..

A friend of mine was digging a drainage ditch in his front yard and discovered 2 bodies. One was wrapped in plastic. Obviously they had been there a long time.
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Yeah, the next owner of this house will have the same issue if he tries to plant flowers in the back yard.

I kid, I kid! It's not the back yard.
 
I wonder if adding some baby powder would enhance the effect for those on the ground? I noticed also that a couple shots in one YouTube video looked like they didn't finish the job completely! (Skip to 1:05) :eek:

 
woodchucker said:
I’m the same. Even a tethered balloon was too much.
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It's got something to do with the visual of a connection to the ground. With no building or tower or even a tether, you don't have the sensation of being "up". We evolved the fear of heights from things like cliffs and trees but there is nothing in our evolution to give us a fear of being suspended high in midair by "nothing" so we don't have the instinct to fear that situation. I read that somewhere once so it must be true. Although it doesn't explain people who are afraid of flying although I suspect that has a lot more to do with being trapped in an enclosed space strapped into a chair surrounded by strangers and having zero control over the situation.
 
Zeldman said:
At least here in new Mexico a body can be wrapped in a sheet and buried in the back yard as long as a fence is built around the grave site and the site is registered as a cemetery. I would bet there are plenty of non-registered grave sites on the reservations..

A friend of mine was digging a drainage ditch in his front yard and discovered 2 bodies. One was wrapped in plastic. Obviously they had been there a long time.
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Walter White’s house next door? :)
 
Ryanb said:
No I was kidding.
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Unless your last name happens to be Focker, I was kidding too. You may be one of the only guys in history that hasn't seen Meet The Parents.

 
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