Featherlite's dont fly

“I will be flying with my backpacking gear next week, and a few weeks ago the lady at the airline told me that my Coleman Featherlite stove would be ok to check as long as the tank was empty. Looking at the airline website, on their "camping items" link I found out that any stove or lantern that has a tank will not be permitted unless brand new, in the box.

If it ever had fuel in it they wont let it fly.

I've had the Featherlite for years, and Im not an ultralighter so the weight doesnt bother me much. Im reluctant to go by what the lady on the phone said because I dont know if I will get my stove back if it IS confiscated.

Im considering picking up an MSR Pocket Rocket, as I wasnt really planning to spend money on a stove right now and a canister stove is all that I can bring according to the website.

Has anyone flown (Southwest Airlines) with an empty white gas stove or fuel tank before?”

“Try making a pepsi stove.”

“pepsi stove wont do. I'm meeting up with some long lost backpacking buddies, all three of which have not kept with it. I suspect that their gear is less than up to par, and I will be pleased if there is one other stove besides mine. Mine just might be the only stove on the trip. Pain in the ass with one stove but it will be really cool to hang with these guys again.

Probably just gonna buy the Pocket Rocket, make everyone who doesnt have a stove carry a canister.”

“Esbit tabs are cheap...”

“See if UPS could get your stove to one of your buddies via ground in time. PUrge the fuel tank and ship it.”

“Personally, I wouldn't risk trying to fly with it, not because there's any danger, but because the airline will likely yank your stove, regardless of what the woman said on the phone.

The Featherlite doesn't have a detachable tank, does it? If it did, I'd suggest just buying a new fuel bottle.

Buying a Pocket Rocket and making the other guys carry canisters is a good option, and will give you results consistent with a white gas stove, as long as it doesn't get too cold.”

“I would suggest a MSR Superfly as it takes many different brands of fuel canisters.
I have one and it works great for group cooking.
Forget the built in igniter option. Sometimes mine works, sometimes not. A match works every time.”

“There are much better cannister stoves out there then the pocket rocket. The pocket rocket's pot stand design is unstable, and it's tall hight does no help it in that matter. The Snow Peak Gigapower is a much better cannister stove for $10 more.”

“I could go Superfly for 10 bucks more but the Gigapower is 40 bucks more, when I wasnt planning to buy a new stove at all. The wife is irritated that Im spending 40-50 bucks on "another" stove, she would freak if I spent 80-90.”

“You can send your own stove to yourself in the city you are going to hike from. Send it to the hotel you're staying in the first night.”

“Ummm...all you need to do is clean it and put it in a box.

Talk to your local gear store and ask if you can have a box with an coleman logo on it.”

“Good tought HPM. Also, make about 3 or 4 Pepsi can stoves, buy the alcohol when you get there, and ditch the stoves when you're done (assuming you can't fly with them after being used)”

“OMG...HPM, are you suggesting that c_bat (dare I say it?) lie?????”

“There's your answer! Forget about spending the clams, follow the wisdom of hpm.”

“No, I am suggesting that he clean his stove and put it in a box.

I've talked to several airlines about flying with stoves and the Federal rules state that the stove needs to be clean, empty of fuel and have no smell of fuel.”

“c-bat, yes i have had that experence of flying on sw air and having my stove confiscated in manchester, nh. i live in florida. they let my fly up there back in sept with my stove. no problem, i let the skycap know what was in there. and my husband was dropping my cousin and i off and if they didn't want it to fly he was there to take it and we would deal with it. we were going to car camp. cousin got sick, stayed in a motel for a week, didn't use stove. got to manchester and had to go inside and they asked what was in my cooler and i told them. well ther was noway they were letting my stove come on their plane. i had already turned the car in so i couldn't go to the post office to ship it either. had an agguement with several people and they finally decided to ship it by ground to me. well 3 months later still no stove and it was because they had to get hazerous labels from msr. finally my bosses sister went up over christmas and brought it back to me. i will ship by ground next time and not tell them what is in there. i did get a 100.00 travel voucher out of the deal”

“That's exactly the kind of crap that Im trying to avoid, cyndeee. Thanks for sharing. I bought an MSR Superfly at lunch today and Im done with it.

Thanks to everyone for the responses and suggestions.”

“Enjoy your trip.”

“Thanks HPM.”

“Except for the trip back c bat!”