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by komali2 2201 days ago
What pens have you had success with on flights?
3 comments

Vacuum fillers are known to tolerate flights well; that was part of their original sales proposition during the early jet era. Purportedly they can even write on an airplane, but I personally wouldn’t dare try.

The trick with flying with fountain pens is storage angle. The air pocket that remains in the pen is going to be at a much higher pressure than the air in the airplane, so it is going to expand. If the pen is stored nib up, that air pocket is close to the top, and can escape through the nib with minimal leakage. If the pen is stored nib down, the air pocket will expand and drive ink out of the nib.

The TWSBI pens tend to do well. A pen that doesn’t do well is the Pilot Vanishing Point.

I think the comment on what angle you keep it at until you reach flight level is spot on. If you can store it so that the air bubble is up and the feed doesn’t have a huge amount of ink in it, it should be okay.

Some variations of vacuum fillers also have a piston that you unscrew to let ink flow from the reservoir, but close when you fly.

(Sorry if this is a bit vague. I’m more of a user of fountain pens rather than a collector so I tend not to geek out as much when it comes to the technical details. I mostly tend to choose pens based on what kind of writing I’m doing :-))

Every single one of them if you keep them upright during the takeoff which isn't too difficult if you put them in your top pocket when you go to the airport (even if you don't you will be getting a reminder when you go through the TSA line and you have to make the pain run through the X-ray).