It is poignant to watch Just Jane's taxi runs at East Kirkby when just before she gets back to the hard standing, some-one occasionally nips out into the propwash and disperses ashes over the airfield.
Back in the day, we often carried out a few ashes drops into the Moray Firth from a Shackleton (and debating whether we could claim rations for them up to the time that they disappeared down the flare shoot). The trick was to hold the ashes in a loosely bound chart that would disintegrate and dispense the ashes once it had left the aircraft (there were the occasional mishaps with an inexperienced crew when the ashes were just poured into the chute leading to a blowback - often over the unfortunate Padre, and a requirement to vacuum the aircraft on landing). Do any current types still scatter ashes for ex-RAF personnel?
This is the dispersal of Sqn Ldr Ian "Beery" Weir" of 8 Sqn, reclining in his tube in the aircraft galley before the service.
