Not a trash can

The idea for this strip came from a story a helicopter old timer told me about one of his old logging captains who was really nasty to his copilots and mechanics. Apparently there was a time in this company where the captain was above the law and a flying god who was not to be talked to unless addressed by said captain first. He never cleaned the aircraft or helped and to add insult to injury, he constantly just threw all his trash into the chin bubble because he was too lazy to even take out his own trash. I am glad I never had to work with a guy like that.

But I think in Chuck’s case he had the, in his mind, good intention of throwing the trash out rather than clutter up the cockpit. Yet throwing it out the window might not go over well with most of us. There are actually surprisingly few FAA rules about dropping objects from an aircraft. They simply read almost like “Make sure you don’t hit anybody!”. In Chucks case however, he might run into other city or state laws like littering and such …

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6 comments on “Not a trash can
  1. Bernd says:

    In Germany, you can’t throw anything out of an aircraft, not even leaflets. There are very few and very specific exeptions, such as dropping vaccination bait for wild animals, dropping a tow line and/or banner after towing (yes, even these are mentioned explicitly), and a few others. For most of these, you need a specific permit, too (although the general permit to drop your tow line/banner comes with the towing endorsment).

  2. Ralph Decker says:

    Anyone remember movie “the Gods must Be Crazy”

  3. Magnoire says:

    I LOVE “The Gods Must Be Crazy”!
    I was thinking more along the lines of “WKRP in Cincinnati” episode with the turkeys.
    https://youtu.be/lf3mgmEdfwg

  4. Quill says:

    This reminds me of a funny story my mom once told me. She and a friend were flying a Cherokee, during the flight they ate some bananas. Figuring they would harmlessly bio-degrade or be eaten by wildlife, they threw them out the little window. They thought they were gone, but when they landed they found all the banana peels plastered onto the leading edge of the stabilator. Made a bit of a mess. Was flying with her another time in another Cherokee, we ate some bananas and she insisted that the banana peels stayed in the cockpit.
    The actual likelihood of anything thrown from a cockpit hitting someone is extremely slim. Slightly higher danger of causing damage, depending on what is thrown (soda can probably won’t damage much). Littering would be the biggest issue, I’m sure someone could get fined for that – if caught… It reminds me of the classic story of a town in Australia jokingly charging NASA with a fine for littering when Skylab debris fell in the area, in a typical good-spirited Aussie manner.

  5. Dom says:

    I’ve only ever dumped filled sicksacs and range extendors out the window.
    I have also done supply drops, but that’s not littering since the point is that someone specific will pick it up. (until the package gets stuck in a tree)

  6. L says:

    Chuck knew the word “stabilizer”. And he even pointed to the right part.
    That is highly suspicious.
    What have you done with our Chuck?!? 🙂

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