Beery's Last Flight
When Beery died (1985?) his ashes were scattered over the Firth from a Shackleton in the manner described by SV although there had been a modification to solve the problem of "Blowback". Beery's ashes were placed in a tube made out of a Low Flying Chart and clingfilm. The idea was that the tube would disintegrate in the airflow once it had been launched from the flareshoot. I remember a series of photographs being taken of the late pilot leader in his tube taken at various point around the aircraft ("Pilot Leader reclining in the Port Beam Seat", Beery in his Captains' Seat etc). A also believe that the Padre was concerned in case there was "the ecclesiastical equivalent of a birdstrike" should the tube be too robust. However I believe that all went well, although the tube had to be made much bigger as Beery left an awful lot of ashes and prototype 1 overflowed during filling. The final quandry for the crew was whether or not to claim in-flight rations for the late pilot leader. In the end, they went ahead although Beery was only worth an extra Dairy Cream Sponge due to the shorter duration of his particular flight. His memorial Service on the Sqn was a good party too if I remember. A fitting end for one of the most genuine persons you are likely to meet.
PS. Sorry if this post appears twice - first time I got a "Server Busy", so went again to make sure.