Scattering cremains

[Magilla Gorilla]

My oldest buddy (of 50 years) and flying partner died in his sleep this month on the 11th. We had great times flying all over the state of Texas, particularly in the Big Bend area, also on both of our private ranches. We had talked of scattering our ashes by drone flight. I fly a Mavic Pro Platinum. He flew a Phantom 4.
Does anyone on the forum know of a good ash release system for the P4? I would really like to do it with his bird. If not is there one for the MPP?
Please don’t scold me on the legalities of scattering cremains. I don’t care to hear what you have to say about that.
I’m gonna do it!
If there is not a commercially available, reasonably priced, option I will invent one. I already have drawings, but would appreciate any knowledge from this crowd.
Thanks for reading this, and farewell to my buddy Toddo!

p.s. I searched the forum and did not find any info on this topic.

 

[Thomas B]

Sorry to hear about your friend. Excellent tribute!
Don’t know of a device per se, but would suspend it a couple of feet below the bird to avoid getting caught in an ash cloud and would test the drone with an object attached that weighs the same as your proposed payload before trying to fly.

 

[THE CYBORG]

Can the P4 take the weight ? It will be a heavy load if you intend to do it in one go.

 

[Magilla Gorilla]

Thanks for the condolences and the good advice.

 

[MiniMan]

Sorry for your loss. Perhaps something as simple as a container with holes where the remains will not come out until you get up to speed and the wind/air will blow them out......

 

[Magilla Gorilla]

Can the P4 take the weight ? It will be a heavy load if you intend to do it in one go.

The P4 will be able to handle several scatterings. We flew in the mountains of Big Bend, the Hill Country, the Coastal Bend and South Texas. He wanted to be scattered. His religion did not prohibit scattering. Also his family wants to scatter elsewhere, so it will be small, maybe fist-full payloads.

 

[Magilla Gorilla]

Sorry for your loss. Perhaps something as simple as a container with holes where the remains will not come out until you get up to speed and the wind/air will blow them out......

Good idea! And a good use for Sport Mode!

 

[WARRIK]

Best of luck to you in this endeavor.

 

[Magilla Gorilla]

Best of luck to you in this endeavor.

Thank you. I intend to have at least one of the drops filmed from on top of a mountain out west. The prevailing winds should do a good job assisting.

 

[Camino Ken]

Sorry you lost your friend. I just lost a friend of 50 years last year so I understand. I had spread some ashes for a different friend from a manned aircraft many years ago and if I remember the package weighed about a pound or two so it seems like 1/2 to 1/4 in each payload should be OK.

BTW, I was curious and did a quick search and found this:

Phantom 4 Release & Drop Products | Sky Hook Drop Wheel

Drone Sky Hook Offers a variety of compatible devices that quickly attach to your Phantom 4 drone. Using our Sky Hook Drop Wheel, your Phantom 4 Release & Drop products allow your drone to carry & transport items, go drone fishing and drop your payload or fishing line at the click of a button.

www.droneskyhook.com

Good luck

 

[Magilla Gorilla]

Sorry you lost your friend. I just lost a friend of 50 years last year so I understand. I had spread some ashes for a different friend from a manned aircraft many years ago and if I remember the package weighed about a pound or two so it seems like 1/2 to 1/4 in each payload should be OK.

BTW, I was curious and did a quick search and found this:

Phantom 4 Release & Drop Products | Sky Hook Drop Wheel

Drone Sky Hook Offers a variety of compatible devices that quickly attach to your Phantom 4 drone. Using our Sky Hook Drop Wheel, your Phantom 4 Release & Drop products allow your drone to carry & transport items, go drone fishing and drop your payload or fishing line at the click of a button.

www.droneskyhook.com

Good luck

Thank you, sorry for your loss also. And thanks for the link. I haven’t seen that one.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Sorry to hear about your mate, have lost a couple myself in recent years and it isn't easy.

Perhaps a simple twin handle small plastic bag (or attach your own loops) hook over a stick tied to the lower leg arm projecting forward.
Put bag over loop, tape back loop to arm, put ashes in.
Take off with a slight wind behind you flying with the wind, get to a release point, then simply fly backwards to release front loop and contents should fall out and go with the wind away from the P4.

All the best with the tribute and moving on.

 

[dirkclod]

What ever you try do it with fire ashes first. This as you know
you don’t want to mess up.
Sorry about your friend but know he’s in a better place than us.

 

[Magilla Gorilla]

Sorry to hear about your mate, have lost a couple myself in recent years and it isn't easy.

Perhaps a simple twin handle small plastic bag (or attach your own loops) hook over a stick tied to the lower leg arm projecting forward.
Put bag over loop, tape back loop to arm, put ashes in.
Take off with a slight wind behind you flying with the wind, get to a release point, then simply fly backwards to release front loop and contents should fall out and go with the wind away from the P4.

All the best with the tribute and moving on.

Another great idea. Thanks.
Sorry about your mates. You don’t even think about it till it happens, then it’s sad times.

 

[Magilla Gorilla]

What ever you try do it with fire ashes first. This as you know
you don’t want to mess up.
Sorry about your friend but know he’s in a better place than us.

WIll do the fire ashes first. Probably several times till I get the correct release method.
Todd is definitely in a better place. He had been Jonesing for a Phantom 5 or Mavic 3! Now he’s flying them with unlimited battery life and free beer!

 

[bumper]

When I was a lot younger, I'd blow up large balloons with a stoichiometric mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, then I attached a small plastic bag with gunpowder and half a cigarette pocked through a cut off corner of the bag as a "fuse". Went way up, puff of smoke from the powder, and a thunderous boom from the gas explosion! (Don't try this at home.) But, some of that could be useful.

Suspend the ashes a safe distance below the drone on a line. Attach a very small weight to the line a few feet above the ashes - this will keep the line from blowing up into the props when descending later. Add a small bag of gunpowder inside the bag of ashes with a length of hobby canon fuse (available on Amazon) for the timer (more reliable than the cigarette, though that always did work:c). The gunpowder will not explode as it won't be contained to build pressure, it will tear open the sealed bag due to the additional pressure. Of course, experiment with this first. Don't do this over fire prone terrain in dry weather.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

with a length of hobby canon fuse

As bomb making teenagers we used to use those car tyre patches with a metal plate and pad of combustible material, cut that into strips, great fuses.
Lucky we made it past the teen years for sure thinking of what we used to get up to.

I like the idea, go out with a bang !!
But not on the P4 !!!

 

[old man mavic]

sorry for your loss of your friend

 

[Magilla Gorilla]

sorry for your loss of your friend

Thank you. Good friends are hard to come by!

 

[Magilla Gorilla]

When I was a lot younger, I'd blow up large balloons with a stoichiometric mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, then I attached a small plastic bag with gunpowder and half a cigarette pocked through a cut off corner of the bag as a "fuse". Went way up, puff of smoke from the powder, and a thunderous boom from the gas explosion! (Don't try this at home.) But, some of that could be useful.

Suspend the ashes a safe distance below the drone on a line. Attach a very small weight to the line a few feet above the ashes - this will keep the line from blowing up into the props when descending later. Add a small bag of gunpowder inside the bag of ashes with a length of hobby canon fuse (available on Amazon) for the timer (more reliable than the cigarette, though that always did work:c). The gunpowder will not explode as it won't be contained to build pressure, it will tear open the sealed bag due to the additional pressure. Of course, experiment with this first. Don't do this over fire prone terrain in dry weather.

I like the hobby cannon fuse idea.
Got me to thinking about hot gluing a fuse to the bottom of a plastic bag with the ashes inside. It should melt the bag open and do a good release. One of the fishing weights I made for him tied above the bag will keep everything out of the props after release.