air travel with a backpacker stove

FWIW, you can buy Bic lighters at the same stores that sell cigarettes at most airport. Do that when you land at your destination, and avoid anxieties about possible TSA problems with mis-interpreation of regulations. You have better things to worry about.

Another option: research local outfitters between your final airport and the trailhead. Plan to swing by there and pick up a brand new stove, fuel canisters, lighters, Esbit tablets, or anything else that you want to take that you THINK might be trouble getting aboard the plane. You have better things to worry about.

WB

Jamie:

1. Titanium tent stakes be carry-on? Yes.
2. Can my metal tipped hiking poles be carry-on? No.
3. My alky stove empty? Yes.
4. My lighter was fine to carry on. Yes.
5. Fuel – No.
6. Swiss army classic? No.

In a nutshell, I carry on my pack with everything — except:

1. multitool (or swa)
2. Hiking poles

I check the above two items inside this:

Two things that pretty much must be procured at destination are:

1. fuel
2. bear spray

"I would fill a rubbing alcohol bottle with denatured alcohol."

Absolutely not! Not as a carry on. And not in your checked luggage either.

You risk endangering the lives of everyone onboard — and you also risk fines and/or criminal prosecution if found out.

Well Ben…

In retrospect, it was a bad idea!!

Ben, You've greatly simplified this for me.

Thanks, Jamie

Guys….

It's completely legal to take liquor in unopened bottles in your check bag.

Everclear burns better than denatured anyway, and you can drink it in a pinch.. I travel all the time, international and domestic, and I pretty much never have a check bag without liquor or beer in it.

What's the dilemma?

Many brands of chapstick are essentially petroleum and burn just as well as Vaseline when mixed with cotton balls. I consider my chapstick backup fire starter. I wonder how many containers of Carmex you would have to have in a carry on bag to get the attention of airport security?

>>It's completely legal to take liquor in unopened bottles in your check bag.

Copied directly from the TSA website:

Carrying Alcohol In Your Checked Baggage

Please note, you can’t take alcoholic beverages with more than 70% alcohol content (140 proof), including 95% grain alcohol and 150 proof rum, in your checked luggage.

You may take up to five liters of alcohol with alcohol content between 24% and 70% per person as checked luggage if it’s packaged in a sealable bottle or flask.

Alcoholic beverages with less than 24% alcohol content are not subject to hazardous materials regulations.

So Everclear is not allowed is not allowed in checked baggage…

Javan Dempsey, we have a warrant here for your arrest! You have a right to remain silent. Anything you say can be held against you in a court of law…

Ahh I stand corrected, but I won't tell them that.

Although supposedly a certain amount of hairspray is allowed, and they were going to relax the sizes on that, but that may have been nixed with the recent "scares".

Haha yeah for real.

I don't know how many times I've brought back 190proof stuff from latin america.. I guess they don't read the labels, and I've taken EC with me a few times.

There are at least two sets of rules that apply here. The TSA rules regarding items and materials that might be used 'inappropriately' and DOT/FAA rules for air transportation of hazardous materials (explosives, flamable solids and liquids, corrosives, etc). I don't beleive TSA agents are familiar with or responsible for the FAA rules and visa-versa. Any question of what is 'legal' should be checked against both agencies rules. That one in a million 'accident' could hurt someone or worse!

-Lance

Vaseline and cotton balls packed separately. (Cotton balls are used to remove make-up) Later immerse the inside of a cotton ball with the vaseline to make a good fire starter.

To get dry wood for your stove, take a knife so that you can split the wood as though they were logs: Hold the blade parallel to the ground, bang the other end down through the stick to be split with a piece of larger wood or the like.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2917966330045831896abaawp

BTW, not to beat the dead horse, but if just used as a backup fire starter, the booze doesn't have to be that high alcohol content..

Only needs to be over 100proof. Wont work in a stove probably, but will definitely ignite with the ease.

And you do realize this is a "public" forum…

No worries, I won't squeal. Although I do hope all ye guilty ones will refrain from flying with inflammable liquids (drinkable or not) in the future!

So are we done now, problem solved?

The real issue is not a common lighter. It never was. Let me state that again since a few people here seem to dwell on it. It's not the lighter. It's not getting a fire started, either. It's not about kindling. The issue is purely the main fuel. Ideally this is something wooden from the size of a pencil to the size of a finger. Something dry enough and with enough heat content.

I have a package of fire starter sticks, which are sawdust and wax. I may get another package or so. This will augment whatever local damp twigs I find at the site. I may throw in an extra candle. I can't imagine that a candle would seem like a threat, despite what the TSA office told me recently. TSA stated that any inspector can remove anything suspicious, regardless of whether it was on the "permitted" list or not. TSA said, for example, that some candles would not be permitted.

Finally, I realized that this was my federal tax dollars at work.

I'll pass on the comment about TSA inspectors to my friend who works as one.
–B.G.–

Please do. BPL restricts my ability to properly describe my feelings about the TSA.

I haven't done your kind of traveling, so just cerebralizing here…

Any way you can collect or buy appropriate-sized twigs or pieces of wicker or rattan or some such — package them in several bags — and call them decoration (hobby / craft something to that effect)? Then check in a good size bottle of Purell (or equivalent) to add fuel to the above, so to speak?

Benjamin, we all know that wood is flammable and it can be considered a fuel. We all know that there is absolutely no danger in wood, though. Look at cargo pallets made out of wood.
Recently I had some email discussions with TSA and DOT, and I attempted to pin them down as to what was legal and what was not, and they would not budge. They kept falling back on the line about TSA inspectors have the right to remove anything. I kept asking about Esbit, wood, wax, and just about anything else that I thought would support my woodburning stove. When I asked about a candle, they said that some candles would be confiscated. The nearest point to success I got was when some DOT specialist said that if I supplied the MSDS sheet on anything, she could tell me if it was legal or not. Of course, my candle package has no MSDS sheet on it.
I have one bag of firestarter sticks, and I will get another bag, and I will bag up my damp twigs when I get to the destination, and the moose and the beaver will watch.
–B.G.–

Bob,

You are wasting your time worrying about something that shouldn't have to be worried about. Just pack your gear and go man. It's like you're stuck on the TSA like they are God or something. Either follow their rules or don't. You know your options. I think this has been beaten to death. You can stick esbit tabs in your pocket if you want. It's not like they will spontaneously combust. Take whatever you want.

Am I still here?

Peace

Bob — Juston being a commercial pilot, I'd take his approach.

Ben,

If this thread keeps going, i'm going to fly with Bob and do his dirty work for him. LOL Sorry if I came across as an ass Bob. The TSA and their stupid rules gets my blood boiling real quick.

I'll never get over the fact that I fly the airplanes, but God forbid I have a pair of scissors or a pocket knife. Hell! I have an axe in the cockpit with me. I'm done with this thread. It's going to get me in trouble.

Good luck with your endeavors Bob. Looking forward to your post trip writeup… I hope it's not from a jail cell. LOL :D

Night night all.

I don't know about his approach, but he can take off.

On a related note, I guess we all know that Bear Spray cannot be taken, either checked or carryon. That would get awfully nasty if some compartment depressurized. Bush planes in Alaska are not pressurized anyway.

Then also, Bear Flares can't be taken, because they classify as explosives or something.

That's kind of a shame for backpackers who fly out to Yellowstone or Glacier, buy Bear Spray and carry it, and then when they go to head home, they have to dump it or give it away. It's too bad there isn't some kind of Bear Spray rental system, like Yosemite uses for Bear Canisters.

–B.G.–