Expert: Lisa Carlson - 7/2/2009

Question
I wrote you several days ago but did not receive a confirming email, nor did I expect one.  I sent you a few lines on the same subject a few minutes ago and in that case I got a confirming email!  So I am repeating my first correspondence in case you did not get it.  PS.  I bought your book but it has not arrived.
My mother was the first woman to earn a pilot's license in Hamilton County (Greater Cincinnati), Ohio (1932).  The medical school to which she donated her body has just informed me that her cremains are available for my disposition.  I am thinking that she would appreciate having her "ashes" scattered from the air over an uninhabited, perhaps wooded, rural area near Cincinnati.  One constraint would seem to be the safety or comfort of anyone who might happen to be below as you describe the cremains as being "like aquarium gravel".  Assuming I could get the cremains (or a portion of the cremains) reduced (ground) to a more ash-like or sand-like state, do you foresee any problems legally or otherwise?  I am thinking of a very low speed flight in a (very low speed) Piper Cub (her biplane's top airspeed in 1932 was 85 miles per hour, so she would appreciate that) with a small amount of such "ashes" being scattered from a small paper lunch bag held at arm's length out the side window with no other aircraft around.

Answer
You are correct. I never got your first question, so I'm glad you sent it again. I just answered the second one without really understanding the issue.

I think you'll be fine with whatever they give you after the cremation, if you're flying over rural areas. Typically the law says "with land-owner's permission." But I wouldn't worry about that. The state and federal parks have a don't ask, don't tell policy. What a nice tribute to your mother!