Chuck Patterson wrote:
A friend died earlier this year and his widow has asked
that we scatter his ashes from a sailplane, preferably
an ASK 21. Does anyone have experience with this? Visions
of various ash scattering scenes from the movies come
to mind - scenes that I do not wish to reenact.

We have considered running a tube out the window thinking
that the ashes would be sucked out (have not tried
this yet). We have tried, using a bag of dirt, just
pushing the bag out the window and trying to get it
to empty into the airstream. That did not work. The
thought of flying without the canopy so the bag could
be more easily emptied in the airstream came to mind,
but I do not believe that operations without a canopy
are approved in the flight manual, and it might just
make an even bigger mess.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Chuck

The ashes of one of our members was scattered from one of our G103's
earlier this year. The ashes were transferred to cylindrical "boxes"
that fine Whiskey bottles are sold in. These were pushed out through
the window and rotated/lightly shaken to disperse the ashes. It took
much longer than expected to complete the task.

One of the suggestions made by one of our members in preparation for
the flight was that a little side slip can help ensure the ashes do not
blow back into the cockpit although I don't know if this technique was
employed.

Best wishes for your friend's last flight.

--
Neil