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shortfatoldguy
Aug 3, 2004, 12:51 AM
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Okay, so I don't get out much, but this was a real PITA...
Last weekend, I was flying out of Portland to Reno on my way to Tuolumne, on Southwest Airlines. I get to the ticket desk, and answer "yes" to the question "Do you have a camp stove?" I take my MSR Dragonfly out of my pack (checked bag), with its bottle, which I had emptied and let air out overnight--no hint of a sniff of a whiff of fuel in it.
They tell me no bottle, no valve/regulator, but the stove can go. I'm thinking that this is the most ridiculous, ricockulous, absurd, paranoiac, psychopathalogical, inconvenient, and needlessly expensive thing I'd experienced in quite some time.
WTF??
I tried to reason with them, but apparently when the fear of terrorism/accidents/witchcraft is involved, there is no reasoning with people.
What are your experiences of flying recently vis-a-vis stoves? With what airlines?
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monkeyarm
Aug 3, 2004, 1:11 AM
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in our experience southwest let us take it to NH but wouldn't let us take it back. And on top of it my bag had two stoves and two empty fuel contaners in it and got searched by the feds (you know your bag is all messed up unpacked wrapped in a plastic bag cause they couldn't get it all back in, but they left a note so its ok) and they had no problem with it. I have never flown southwest without a problem
So we went to Fed Ex and they said that all fuel bottles needed to be cleaned with a certification attatched in order for us to mail it. so one of my friends ended up bringing the cannisters down a couple months later when he came to visit.
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hugepedro
Aug 3, 2004, 1:16 AM
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Hey Shortfat,
I flew Albuquerque to Seattle 2nd weekend in July on America West. Had a Whisperlite in my checked bag, no fuel bottle. No questions asked about a camp stove, but I could tell TSA had pulled it out and looked at it when they rummaged through the bag.
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cthcrockclimber
Aug 3, 2004, 1:22 AM
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I couldnt even bring my shaving cream in my carry on to london!! I think that was with AA
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oafy
Aug 3, 2004, 2:00 AM
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I've flown all over North America with a wisper-lite and lots of fuel bottles. No problem ever. You'll just notice its been looked at. Thats all.
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shortfatoldguy
Aug 3, 2004, 2:40 AM
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Yeah, so the rest of the story is that on the way back my partner had the whole works in his checked bags, which were searched (and marked as having been searched), and it was all there at the end of the trip.
There was even a sign up in the Reno airport showing campstoves and fuel bottles as verboten, and the luggage handlers/inspectors didn't seem to give a sh!t...
I'm about tired of this War on Terror. Pretty soon we're all going to have get an anal probe every time we board a plane.
"I'm sorry, sir, you can't fly with that turd in your lower intestine."
I'd prefer to take my chances and let people fly with their freaking camp stoves. Better, let me take my 9mm w/ frangible ammo. I'll settle the a$$ of any Richard who wants to hijack the freaking plane.
"SAFETY FIRST!"
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qwert
Aug 3, 2004, 10:35 AM
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And i thought this would be a fun thread about using stoves as rockets, to fly cheap. Some have some mighty torches you know :twisted:
qwert
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joshj
Aug 3, 2004, 12:39 PM
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My parents do A LOT of backpacking in the southwest. They have just gotten in the habit of buying fuel when they get to their destination. I believe they had the same sort of problem BEFORE 9/11, so they just decided to bypass it altogether.
josh
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allarounder
Aug 3, 2004, 2:40 PM
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these threads are getting repetitive. Can you just do a search next time, dude?
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shortfatoldguy
Aug 3, 2004, 3:01 PM
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^^ I had searched using the terms "flying," "airline(s)," "stove," and had found one brief post. Sorry to take up your valuable time, dude. Maybe you shouldn't bother responding to repetitive threads, dude. Maybe I'll post another "which is the best belay device" thread... :lol:
Sauron, yeah, I can fly with guns in my checked bags but not an empty, open, MSR bottle.
I'm still not clear on why the people at the ticket desk would tell me the actual stove was okay to check but not the empty bottle and regulator. The stated logic [sic] on the regulator was that it had touched the bottle. But then, so had the stove, obviously.
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claramie
Aug 3, 2004, 3:15 PM
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That sucks about your stove. Some people have been allowed to take them while others (ie you) are denied. I think that it always comes down to one thing; the person that you deal with at the airport. I've asked security personnel at a bunch of different airports and I get mexed answers, which leads me to one conclusion, that there is no one definitive answer. This leads airport security personnel to make up their own mind each time.
You're probably best off taking a canister stove because it has no fuel bottle or intake hose (besides the MSR Windpro).
CL
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troutboy
Aug 3, 2004, 3:37 PM
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As I have said before, airlines have rules that are enforced in an arbitrary and capricious nature.
Call an airline and ask a question about baggage size, climbing gear, fuel bottles, etc. You will get a different answer from each airline and also from each PERSON you talk to at a given airline. Things also vary by airport (each airports screening policies differ).
Stoves and fuel are not a terrorist threat, they are a hazard during flight due to leakage, explosion, etc. Fuel canisters were a problem long before 9/11.
I just returned from three weeks in Glacier, carrying my stove with an unused fuel canister. No problems. Never had any either, but I've been lucky. As you can see from the responses, the rules are A & C.
TS
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landrvrnut21
Aug 3, 2004, 4:41 PM
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From my experience, you can fly with a stove, but not the bottle. I have had one bottle confiscated, and told I couldnt fly with it. Northwest Airlines will allow you to fly with a new, never used bottle. The problem is you cant fly home with it. I have shipped my bottle to a freind or acquaintance, and picked it up when I got there. I have also bought a bottle there, used it, and returend it, claiming it "leaked"
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