So I will be helping a friend spread his dads ashes over hills around where we grew up. Any ideas to prevent ash in the cockpit?

I can remove or open either/both doors easily. But not sure that will work in my favor. I can slightly prop the door open which might create a low pressure zone.

Thoughts ? First time for me.

How about taking a piece of 1 inch hose and sticking it out the door into the slip stream turning it into a vacuum cleaner and just suck the ashes up. I've used this to clean bugs off the glareshield.
Nick W.

I seem to be the designated driver for the ash mobile over the years. It's real simple, and clean for the inside of the airplane (outside, you're gonna get dirty!) provided you:

1) Slow the airplane down a bit. 90-100 MPH works good.
2) Open your side window, or door, enough to place both hands and the bag, about a foot behind the door post. Do not remove the doors!!!!!!
3) Hold the bottom of the bag firmly (real hard) with one hand, and hold the neck of the bag closed with the other.
4) When you get over your spot, and especially if people are watching from the ground, start a gentle turn to the left (or your side of the airplane) and slowly start letting the ashes release from the bag.

Obviously it takes three hands so I usually have someone steer for me while I let the ashes go. But from the ground it's really a pretty sight like a long puff of white smoke trailing from the airplane.

I've done it by myself before, but it means really trimmimg well, and being able to keep your hands outside and off the yoke for a minute or so.

And... Don't ask me how I know, but don't ever try and scatter ashes from a helicopter.

Gump

Built a container, mounted OUTSIDE the cockpit. Actuated by an old choke/throttle cable. Read too many scary stories... Didn't want to go there and wanted it dignified. Practice with some plain old fire ash no matter the method you go with.

Sometimes you get a dusting! I scattered my best friend two weeks ago at Lake Sonoma. I got a bit of him blown back in. Just figured he wasn't ready to stop flying with me. The next day my brother-in-law and I dropped father-in-law's ashes over Bodega Head. Clean as a whistle, and was told beautiful from the shore. Looked like diamond dust glittering in the sun.

Gump

OGE hover works fine from a helicopter but I still prefer the container.

Cremated remains don't taste very good. Make sure you practice so you don't get blowback in to the cockpit.

The first time I helped to scatter ashes was in Idaho. We first took the ashes around to several of his favorite fly-out strips and put a "stripe" of ashes on the takeoff ends. Then we tried the hose out the window trick over the shore line on the north side of McCall. It mostly works, but we still came back ashen faced and grey mud around our eyes. Still had some of him in the hose. Tied an overhand knot in the nose and hung the last of him over the fireplace on a ranch up on the Klamath River.

Have since learned a cleaner way with no blow back. Similar to Gumps.

Start with a paper bag, smaller than the usual grocery store bag. Loosen up the glued bottom a bit. May need to practice. We did the practice runs with flour.

Place the ashes or flour in the bottom of the paper bag and roll it up almost to the top.
Leave enough of the top of the back so you can fold it over about twenty feet of cord.
That will leave ya bout ten feet after it is doubled back later. Even I can do that math.

Place the center of the string just down from the top of the bag and roll or fold it over a couple of times.

Tape the top securely with duct tape etc. This becomes easier as a two person task.

Tie the loose ends of the cord together and then continue to roll the bag so that the string is wrapped several times around the whole package.

When the time comes you wrap the end of the string around your wrist so you can hold the whole package in one hand.

You can now reach out behind the open window and simply let go of the bag while hanging onto the string.

I will roll out like a toilet paper roll and when it get to the end the bottom of the bag pops open.

Just do not use too strong of a cord - just in case.

This obviously does not make a long streamer like Gump's, but never got any blow back this way.

Above all - be safe.

Piece of large diameter PVC pipe with a cap glued on on the front end and another cap "pinned" on the rear end (pin hole match drilled through the cap and the end of the tube)with something like a 1/8" rod. Attach a choke cable, bicycle cable, or model airplane "Gold'n'Rod" to the pin and run it into the cockpit. Tape the outer sheath of the actuator cable to the strut so the air doesn't pull on it (important).

Mount the tube to the strut with tape or Ty-Raps or whatever. When in position, pull the choke cable, which lets the cap blow off, which lets the cremation remains out, without any of the risky gymnastics or risk of doing wrong with the remains.

If you want to be fancy about it, put some safety wire on the cap so it can't fall to the ground. If you want to do this for a living, make it out of polished stainless, or gloss black and gold paint, and make a more aerodynamic front cap using a large model airplane spinner cone.

You can also mount a cheapie video camera so it shows the scattering device (with the name of the departed showing on the tube) and offer the scattering video clip to the family as a memento, with the poem "High Flight" being read in the background.

Meat Servo wrote:OGE hover works fine from a helicopter but I still prefer the container.

We were in a 500-C with the ambulance kit (bubble rear doors for two litters) and had a fair bit of forward speed. Guess the rear doors disrupted the airflow out my door, because we looked like ghosts when done. We vacuumed for months cleaning out that poor helicopter.

Gump

Ez-great idea. Will the ashes completely evacuate the tube?

there is a picture in one of Don Sheldon's books of a rig similar to EZs idea. It was a pvc pipe in an inverted T shape with a cap and a ball valve to contain the ashes in the vertical part and the open(on bolth ends) horizontal part in the slipstream( strapped to the struts of a cub) when you get to the destination reach out the window and open the ball valve, the siphon efect will suck the ashes out, and you can make the exhaust end as long as you want to avoid "looking like a ghost",
I have never tried this but if any one should know it would be Don Sheldon.

Interesting the adds google comes up with when vewing this.




Good luck with your ceremony. This past winter during deer hunting season, a friend of mine threw a container of ashes out for the departed's family & hunting buddies. I believe the container had a short orange streamer. After he discharged the container over a 40ac woods, the crew walked thru the woods & attempted to locate him. The guy who found him actually walked past & then looked back & found it. don't remember what they did with him after that.

They did this on a episode of Ice Pilots NWT, think they had a scat pipe or something

GumpAir wrote:
We were in a 500-C with the ambulance kit (bubble rear doors for two litters) and had a fair bit of forward speed. Guess the rear doors disrupted the airflow out my door, because we looked like ghosts when done. We vacuumed for months cleaning out that poor helicopter.

Gump

I started to reply with some wisenhiemer comment about aerodynamics and helicopters, then noticed you used the word "airflow", smart man. I've been trained to regurgitate aerodynamic formula's etc concerning rotor wing aerodynamics. But even after 20 some years smoke and mirrors really makes a lot more sense....

Emflys if you want I can take a picture of the set up we constructed but sounds like there is plenty of ways to skin the cat.

Thanks all, I think I am going to go with this set up:



Easy to make (i have most of the parts already), get's the dispersal out way from the fueslage/flying surfaces, and I can easily operate the valve from the cockpit. Plus, I think the idea of video taping will be great for the family that wasn't able to see it.

Thanks all

Meat Servo wrote:I started to reply with some wisenhiemer comment about aerodynamics and helicopters, then noticed you used the word "airflow", smart man. I've been trained to regurgitate aerodynamic formula's etc concerning rotor wing aerodynamics. But even after 20 some years smoke and mirrors really makes a lot more sense....

I couldn't even spell aerodynamics, especially around helicopters. I opened the door, stuck the plastic bag out like I'd do in a fixed wing, and let go the open end. Poof! We were gray and dusty. Smoke and mirrors always gets ya.

Gump

I've done upwards of 30, buy putting a small rock in the bottom of a plastic shopping bag, twist the bag around the rock, tie a 15' piece of twine to the bag/rock, dump the ashes into the bag, squeeze out air and twist top of bag about twice, fold top over, then wrap twine around middle of bag maybe 10 times, s-fold balance of twine tie a knot in the end for a handle. When ready to scatter, toss the whole bundle out holding on to the knot end of the twine, bundle will hit end, unroll and scatter ashes back behind plane. I then usually fly off someplace, and drop bag, twine and all someplace to decompose. Works great every time...

I have some experience at this...

Put the ashes in a scarf or set of prayer flags, etc. You can roll them up and hang onto one end or just let em go...no ash inside and all goes into the air. In the Himalayas' you see prayer flags everywhere.

There is another guy around here that actually has a biz doing just this. He has a PVC tube coming out the bottom of his door. Looks to be about 2 feet long or so. Just my 2c

Just found this on the web here: http://www.angelwingspr.com/#!our-services

Looks like someone is making some money!!

AKT

I really like the idea of being able to see the whole thing happen (e.g. PVC venturi set up on strut) and I think we are going to make a video of me and the family members putting the ashes in, saying goodbye, taking off, then with the door off/open, go into a slow banked turn, showing the hilltop DZ in the background, and discharging the ashes.

Edit the vid together so they can share with other family/friends.