Wre-kit and recycle dilemma - what to do with the evidence?

[Doc James Hammond]

Gents, tell me, what do you do with the debris resulting from the unplanned and sudden stop of a composite model glider? In these days of growing environmental responsibility this is a big question.

Phase one:
I mean, first you have to find the debris pile and collect all the bits, and its not like that hunting trip where you got that big grizzly on Kodiak Island and just left the gut-pile where it was for the scavenging animals to clear up. Oh no, this could take a long time, but it has to be done, even if privately you don't care about that damn slope dog that kept on crashing and was never good at landing anyway. Actually you just HAVE to find that gut pile because you need the bloody servos, battery and receiver, which nowadays need a feaking mortgage to secure, and the expenditure for which cannot be easily concealed from SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED.

So let's say you have found the still smoking crater, and as an environmentally concious citizen have unearthed - literally - and forensically dug out and bagged up the parts in refuse bags. This, not for convenience, but rather so that they don't look anything like a model aeroplane and so can hopefully be hidden from SWMBO later. Sure, you unobtrusively slip the bag behind that old lawn mower that has not worked for years, and later you sneak into the garage while she is on the phone to the Gorgon MIL - which you know will be for hours, possibly days - and carefully remove the valuable parts, hoping against hope that they are all intact.

But what now? Bugger, there are still two horribly obvious and audibly crunchy bags of REALLY unwanted detritus to be disposed of before it is inevitably unearthed by the sleuth you married, and the equally inevitable stridently accusing question that every modeller dreads worse than any visit by Mr G. Reaper..."WHAT'S THIS?"

Phase two:
Just chuck it away in the rubbish USED to be the answer, but not no more it 'aint. Let me tell unto you that in these informed smart phone infested technical times, things have changed Dudes. In happier days of yore, where you used to be a rubbish collector, now you have become as if by magic a "Detritus Removal and Processing Engineer" or maybe a "Transparent Wall Maintenance Engineer". This metamorphosis has in turn armed you with advanced degrees in Materials Science and Chemistry at the very least, thus enabling microscopic analysis of what comprises chuckable rubbish, and what dont. So woe betide any unwitting home owner who tries to get non-sanctioned rubbish past you. I mean...A bag of model plane parts made of rice paper? I mean is that going to fly? OH no, not on your watch baby. Aint gonna happen Dude.

So...to continue the story...what is the poor evidence-burdened modeller going to do to make the composite gut pile disappear before being busted? Well, chaps I have to say, I'm buggered if I know so I need your advice. I mean I know that breaking a model plane is a very, very, rare event for us veterans, (Except Konrad) but it has been known to happen once or twice per decade.

In the rock-and-a-hard-place diemma, What do you do Lads?

Doc.

 

[Chris]

Just find someone who thinks they can repair it and donate it. Their problem!

 

[Wayne]

Yep, sell it to Konrad or Marty.

Better yet, don't make a gut pile in the first place.

Chris still has a missing gut pile at Sunset. I think we have all seen someone go hunting for their gut pile only to return with an older gut pile donated by an unknown pilot some years prior.

I have a TRASHED F40 prototype that I keep in a junk bag in the office. It is good for show and tell. It went in at a high rate of speed.

 

[Doc James Hammond]

Woo....good ideas.

Is there a Konrad/Marty gutpile wanted list? Like Craigslist for example? Or is that the real and sinister purpose of the "Classifieds" section here?

Office trophy? Hmm...as long as it's someone else's product gutpile I guess - then its helpful for intelligently pointing out all the bad parts of the design and production.

Maybe we could have "concealment bags" - you know, looks like a golf club bag - well, enough to fool SWMBO, but actually, we, and only we, know different. In sneaky reality its cunningly concealed a gut pile stash.

Uh-oh...problem...I wonder what degree of gut-pile concealment bag authenticity would be enough to fool the boss? Could be a problem.

See what I mean? The dilemma persisits...

Doc - a man continually perpelxed by the most trivial of problems.

 

[Wayne]

Seems like most people just pitch the unwanted gut pile in the nearest trash bin. When I was a kid it was a good source for parts/planes. LOL

 

[Konrad]

Here in the People's Republic of San Francisco we have 6 categories of waste. Recyclables (that's a bad joke for another day), compostables, film plastics, landfill, construction waste and hazardous waste. The first 2 are taken away at no added cost. We pay dearly for the rest.

Composite materials are horrible when it comes to end of life issues. This is why there is a strong push to make packaging materials only one type, plastic or organic (paper).

I have over a dozen broken glass slippers piling up in the spare bed rooms. SWMBO would be happy to see me throw out these gut piles! To her, the issues isn't the financial cost these represent but rather the lost space storing these gut piles. (She once figured how much a square foot of model storage costs a year in San Francisco. The cost of kits pales against the property cost in San Francisco).

Really, are Marty and I the few that actually attempt to breath life back into these airframes?

But to your question I go to Tap Plastic and buy more epoxy and cloth!

My airframes go as construction waste (land fill). My epoxy goes as solid hazardous material (I mix the date expired stuff into a polymerized solid before throwing it out as hazardous waste)

 

[Doc James Hammond]

Crikey - I think it takes more time to process the gutpile waste than it does to fit out the model in the first place.

We need a good fission process to get rid of the evidence. Ka-Poof! Gone. Or maybe fusion and make the gutpile into an amorphous unrecognizable blob...

Doc.

 

[Raymond Gaskins]

Crikey - I think it takes more time to process the gutpile waste than it does to fit out the model in the first place.

We need a good fission process to get rid of the evidence. Ka-Poof! Gone. Or maybe fusion and make the gutpile into an amorphous unrecognizable blob...

Doc.

Might I post a few comments about how I have handled this most perplexing of problems?
I think Konrad has the right idea. I still have the remnants of every single one of my rekited (?sp) birds of flight. While I rarely do much damage anymore, I had to keep mine in a rented storage shed to please SWMBO. This worked well until the storage facility increased their rates by tripling them in the past year. SWMBO noticed this and brought this to my attention. I then came up with the idea of building my own museum at my home so that the evolution of my building and flying skills could be preserved for posterity and perhaps whatever alien species is curious or stupid enough to want to hang out with us. Construction will begin sometime in September if I can convince SWMBO of the merits of this project.
I welcome your input regarding an appropriate name for such a museum.
If for some reason, I fail to continue to post on this forum, look for my obituary on line. I don’t think SWMBO would resort to such drastic measures, but you never know for sure. My approach thus far has been centered on the phrase “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission”!
Raymond Gaskins

 

[jure]

following Raymond's posterity concept,
sometime ago , I have verbally made a " living will " , gifting all my model planes , and related leftover parts and components , to a dear flying buddy.
All parties are notified : wife , children , etc. .

 

[Doc James Hammond]

Raymond...you mean you want to be REMINDED of those damnable slope dogs that never landed properly however much you tried to persuade them?

Woe is you sez I - I mean money that could be so much better spent on more legitimate and useful construction projects like...a BAR or an advanced rocket stove (A useful device for disposing of the smaller gutpiles by the way).

As for a name for such a sinister establishment - the word "Mortuary" comes to mind?

I stand astounded.

Doc.

 

[Doc James Hammond]

following Raymond's posterity concept,
sometime ago , I have verbally made a " living will " , gifting all my model planes , and related leftover parts and components , to a dear flying buddy.
All parties are notified : wife , children , etc. .

Jury - I really didnt know you cared you dear, dear man you.

So kind.

Doc.

 

[Konrad]

following Raymond's posterity concept,
sometime ago , I have verbally made a " living will " , gifting all my model planes , and related leftover parts and components , to a dear flying buddy.
All parties are notified : wife , children , etc. .

Now that’s a good way to insure that none of my loved ones would want to assassinate me.

 

[Wayne]

At aloft we have assisted in clearing out a few large gut piles after the passing of a much loved pilot. The surviving family usually just wants the stuff gone, they have no idea of what it is and it only serves as a reminder of what they have lost, I am referring to the much loved pilot. Usually these gut piles will span decades of collection, and the newest items will be 20 years old. There may be a few jewels tucked away in the garage rafters, but sadly the majority of the gut pile goes into the dumpster at the office. We save anything that we think someone will want, and sell as much as possible and that money goes to the family.

It is interesting to sort through someones collection. See their work space and tools, etc. It always tells a story about their hobby adventure. You can see trends in their collection, when they gave electric flight a try, 2 strokes, 4 strokes, diesels... Good tools, bad tools.. I always feel like I am in a museum of someone's life, and it is rather sad as we are closing that museum. The rest of the family are happy to see the clutter go away, in some cases they simply couldn't do it themselves, or didn't know where to start. It all has emotions tied to it. Even when cleaning out an old garage filled with mouse poop and spiders, I still feel like an intruder in the space.

Sorry, didn't mean for this to turn in that direction, but the more I reflected back to doing these clean outs the more I thought this would be of interest.

What does your gut pile say about you?

I'll be honest, I prefer a messy gut pile.. You see more of the day to day stuff this way. You get more damaged planes sitting around, and those tell a bit of a story.

I also helped a dear buddy clean out his gut pile before moving to the East Coast. I kept giving him a hard time that he should keep some of the stuff. He was getting rid of his history. Things like trophies, cool planes that would look good on a wall or in the air. He was hell bent on it all going away. He had promised his wife. And anything aviation was going.. I never fully understood this. His career was aviation, and besides his family aviation was clearly his second love. Owning a J3 cub and a Tri-Pacer at the local airport, giving countless rides in them, young eagles, and teaching youth the joys of RC.. Just to name a few of things he did. How do you just turn that off?