Scattering Ashes?

[Efirmovich]

Advice required......... A friend of mine has asked if I will take her up in the Heli to scatter her Fathers ashes over their farm land ! Is it legal and how likely is he to end up back inside with us ? How may PAX do we have ?? :bored:

E.

[arismount]

You don't say where you are. In the U.S. FAR 91.15 allows the PIC to drop objects from aircraft if the operation doesn't create a hazard to persons or property, etc., etc. Read and heed.

Based on published stories about this activity, you are very likely to get some blowback inside the aircraft, and will almost certainly get some of the remains on the outside of the fuselage. On a light aircraft this would probably only mean a good wash job after landing, but in a helicopter, with that tail rotor back there...???

Personally, I wouldn't advise it.

[ShyTorque]

I think you need a CAA permission for "aerial application".

[Bravo73]

You don't say where you are.

FYI arismount, his profile says 'England'. I think that we can presume that that is 'olde' England rather than New England! ;)


But anyway, Efirmovich, 'search' is your friend:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=68455&highlight=spreading+ashes


Or for the JetBlast take on things!

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=153170&highlight=spreading+ashes


Hope this helps,

B73

[Efirmovich]

Thanks B73, that thread answered the question !

The great old guy was a Spitfire pilot and she thought it would be fitting idea having an airborne departure..... I will advise her to think of another solution, only polished the machine last week !

E.

[Arm out the window]

One of my mates had to drop some out of a Huey; can't remember if they were in the hover or not but a lot of him came back in the cabin, to their dismay.

[NickLappos]

I had a friend who did a drop years ago, and used some forethought to avoid the ash problem. He used a PVC pipe with a trap door at the bottom end, triggered by a wire pull. It was long enough to pass well below the helo, and when he held it down and pulled the wire, the ashes dumped without any blow-back at all.

[Langball]

Reminds me of a classic 'Only Fools and Horses' episode when Dell Boy was trying to 'dispose' of the grandfather's ashes (remember the 'old Irish tumble dryer'). Turned out to be a lot more complicated than originally thought.

Sorry if I seem insensitive, just couldn't resist.

[NickLappos]

Or the last scene in one of my favorite movies, "The Big Lebowski"

"Smoky, this isn't Vietnam, this is bowling, there are RULES!"

[Efirmovich]

Not insensitive,,,,, He would have p****d himself !

E.

[Nigel Osborn]

I've dropped ashes from a AS 350, Bell 212 & a S76. No problem as long as the person leans well out from as far back as possible before removing the lid. And don't fly too fast!!

[the dean]

not sure about your regs now but it used to be the case and i would think still is that you cannot throw anything out of an aircraft ( helicopter)...without the permission of the minister.

that said it is often done since it is not ( if you like ) siomething likely to cause damage nor injure.

can't help about the blowback as i dont drive choppers but i would expect it.

we had one person years back...who not thinking what he was doing threw THE URN out from the back of a cessna 206...and it hit the tail !!:eek: ..and put a huge dent in it ...and could well have taken the tail off..

so all things considered..its a thoughtful idea but maybe it would be just as nice to scatter from a cliff into the ocean ( though not a sailor ) or from a mountain top...and avoid any problems..

i would regard the ocean clifftop as symbolic of the free spirit of the pilot still travelling the globe..but maybe you are a long way from the ocean..

anyway..good luck.

[WASALOADIE]

We once had a similar request. We tried various ideas before the real event. The one that worked was to attach the urn to a long pole (about 6 feet) with plenty of gaffer tape. The lid was secured also by a gaffer tape hinge and a piece of gaffer tape holding it closed with some cord to pull this tape off. At about 60 Kts we slowly put the urn out into the airflow, lid first and when fully extended we inverted the urn and pulled the tape off the lid. Ashes scattered well, Job done! Hope this helps

[Hummingfrog]

I did this a couple of times from a SAR Wessex.

From memory, for legal reasons, we had to be outside the 3 or 12 mile limit ( memory shot :( ) The ashes were wrapped in parcels of damp tissue paper to prevent blowback and we carried a Minister to do the scattering.

Always told ATC that we were getting airborne with 5 souls on board gradually becoming 4 ;)

HF

[vaqueroaero]

I did a drop once over the ocean. We put the ashes in a weighted paper bag and I slowed down and out he went.

Had a colleague do a drop of an old guy over the ocean as well. When they returned to the airport sure enough the ashes were all over the side of the helicopter. They took his grieving wife out of the other side and washed off the ashes. I suppose he eventually ended up in the Pacific, but not quite by the intended routing!

[SASless]

As to "Souls" onboard....the dearly departed should not count in the sum as his "soul" has already departed. The ashes are cargo.

I have promised a dear friend (at his insistence) to scatter his ashes over a very pretty place in Oregon. He says there will be plenty of money available for the aircraft costs. I told him not to worry about the money as I would do that for him in honor of our lifelong friendship.

He was miffed when I explained how I would do it however.

He took exception to my description of how the flight would go....fly as fast as possible to the drop site....open the cabin door....utter the following words..."See you on the other side, Ass-Hole!"....and throw urn, ashes, and the like out the open door...while doing a 180 degree turn at warp speed.

He did admit the financial savings being spent upon a proper Irish Wake would mitigate the lack of solemnity in the spreading ashes routine.

[heliRoto]

I worked for a guy on Kauai Hawaii that did them regularly. B206 and AS350. Riged a plastic box and lid with a handle at the bottom and lid attached to the box with a short lanyard. Speed at least above ETL, all doors windows closed, except door or window used for drop. AC, vent blower on high, fresh air vent open. Do not sprinkle the ashes reach out as far and low as is possible and let them go. Brief the person dropping the ashes before you take off and again before you drop. Never had a problem. Something special, load a couple paper grocery bags with flowers and dump one then the ashes then the other. Fly an orbit and follow them down. If you have a CD or tape player ask them to bring some favorite music. I did one off the Napali coast at near sunset. 3 sisters buried their brother. They had some music and flowers and leis. They went out flowers, leis, ashes, flowers, and leis. I started at 1000 feet and flew circles to the ocean following the flowers. To date the most emotional thing I have been involved with. Good Luck

[remote hook]

Are you guys seriously stressing about the Regs??? For God's sake man, just go and do it. You're NOT creating a hazard to anyone on the ground, so however you can rig it that you're not sniffing the stuff all the way back to Base, do so and have fun.

I've never scattered them on the fly, but on several occasions at the top of mountains, one bit of advice - check the wind....

RH

[Revolutionary]

A few years back I scattered the ashes of my dear grandma over her property in Holland. We used a rented B206, with my aunt sitting in the rear left seat holding this cannister:

http://members.cox.net/jasptastic/ash1.jpg

secured to my auntie's wrist with a piece of string. It is especially made to scatter ashes over a field; you swing it back and forth while opening a kind of trap door in the bottom with the handle. It was loaned to us by the funeral home people and worked like a charm. All I had to do was kick in a load of left pedal.

[imabell]

i have spread many ashes from a helicopter and have never experienced any problems at all. just do it for the old guy and make her day. a bit of pedal, breeze through the cabin, no problems.

[Hairyplane]

If he was a Spitfire pilot then who use a heli? Surely something old, fixed wing and relevant ( did he learn on Tigers for example?) is the machine to use?
I had a letter published in Pilot about my ashes dropping exploits in the Miles Magister.
The plan was a good one but I hadnt reckoned on the amount of water a carrier bag full of ashes scudding around in the boot of an old car for 3 months could hold. I found out later it was like wet plaster.
We used a carboard map tube gaffer taped to the bag. Guess what? The tube unwound in the rear cockpit during the drop. Most of the ash ended up either in my plane or in Acebell Aviations vacuum cleaner.
Like wet plaster? We had to chip it off the tailplane. Nice neat pile on top of the radio ( alongside the rear seat) too. As for the old boys mate who dropped them - his face, helmet, goggles - all grey as if he had been comprehensively spray painted in primer. He looked like one of those living statues you see around Covent Garden......
When it came to the Annual you wouldn't believe how much the engineers found in the fuselage. It had got everywhere.
The best laid plans.......
Hairyplane

[Hoveronly]

Hairyplane, the same thing happened to my brother, he said goodbye to his favourite Uncle by opening the door and started to tip the ashes out when the inevitable happened- he and the entire cockpit went inadvertant IMC. He stopped pouring and still has some of Uncle Ted in his garage some 10 years later.:O