Airlines and stoves/cookware

I've taken my alcohol stove on airlines plenty of times. TSA people don't even know that it's a stove and it's never been taken away. However, they have taken away a nice MSR whisperlite from my dad's luggage which was unused and still in its factory packaging. They claimed that it could have had gas still in its pipes. WTF? I think what they mostly do is just a visual identification to check for stoves in your checked luggage. I wouldn't worry about a blackened pot bottom at all. They might be able to "sniff" for explosives like white gas and propane, but I doubt the same technology works for an alcohol stove, particularly if you're using it with isopropyl, which your blackened pots seem to hint at.

Anyway, my guess with the bushbuddy is that since it does not look like a traditional camping stove, you're probably safe.

Last June we flew from Austin to Paris with a well-used Bushbuddy Ultra. No one remarked upon it. We didn't take any pots, though–we bought those at a discount store in France, and then gave them away before coming home.

The year before, we flew from Austin to Seattle with an old Whisperlite and they didn't take it away. But we cleaned it up really well and then took it apart and put the pieces in different bags. We also put the all-clean fuel bottle in one bag and the cap in another.

Thanks guys, that puts my mind at ease a bit, hopefully it will be a " no questions asked" scenario, and I'll just go on my merry way.

What happens if they won't let you board with the stove? Do they keep it? I would be leary of taking my Bushbuddy on a flight in as much as the TSA is so unpredictable and seemingly cannot be persuaded once an item comes under scrutiny. Consider the woman last week who had to remove items from her anatomy with a pair of pliars before boarding. I have thought about this in the past and have decided to leave my Bushbuddy at home and take a homebuilt alcohol stove. It is too dear to me to give to TSA.

The good news is that I'll be flying out of a very small airport, and I'll just stand-by while they search. I've forgotten to stow a pocket knife before and I just walked up a said "who wants this". They all said if I had time I could run back an put it in my car etc. So hopefully if the bushbuddy comes under any scrutiny I'll be there to rescue it.
I've also checked bags of tools and work uniforms/work boots that I know would be soaked in jet fuel ( I'm an airplane mech, but not for an airline) and jet fuel is apparently not the explosive they're "sniffing" for. Lets hope creosote and pine tar isn't either.