Flying With An Esterbrook J?

[Rav_LandE]

Hello All,

 

Towards the end of the year I'll be flying after quite some time.

 

Last couple of years I seem to have settled on the Esterbrook J and the 9460. Has anyone flown with an Esterbrook J and would be able to share their experiences. I've flown before with a Lamy 2000 without any issues, but am a bit worried about the sac on the Esterbrook by it's very nature being sensitive to pressure.

 

If an Esterbrook isn't going to be suitable I'll have to find something else.

 

Thanks.

[JakobS]

I have done it a lot actually, or did so when I was going to college, the key would be to make sure to keep the sac full of ink to avoid it leaking...

 

If you are hoping to write with it mid flight though I would suggest against it, as the feed does tend to flood after a little bit of writing, usually I had to switch over to a C/C pen.....though I was not always the best at insuring the pen was full when I flew!

[kestrel]

Fly with the pen stored nib up and don't try to use it during ascent. I have made lots of flights with Esties, full Esties, half full Esties, even an Estie with BSB (tempting fate, that one was) and never had one leak.

[Rav_LandE]

Thanks for the information guys. I'm planning to fly towards the end of the year. Will probably be a multi leg flight. On the first one I will fill with a washable blue and test the theory out.

 

Of course if I'm not able to use it might flight I'll just empty it before subsequent flights and have to use a ballpoint for the immigration/customs forms.

 

I'll report back in a few months. Thanks again.

[AL01]

I didn't know that Esties were that reliable during flight...

 

That's good new for us Estie fans out there.

 

(I thought that I would have no choice but to carry a Lamy Safari on flight.)

 

EDIT: Fixed spllin errers.

Edited August 10, 2018 by AL01

[kestrel]

I didn't know that Esties were that reliable during flight...

 

 

Esties are the DC-3s and Timex watches of the pen world. Tough, dependable, and reliable. A marvelous case of overengineering.

[AL01]

Dadgummmmm.

 

I wanna see a DC 3 fly in real life.

 

(At least my Marlin is still tickin'.)

[cellmatrix]

All my esties leak ink into the cap during plane flights. However I have not so scrupulously tried to keep the pen upright during flight as Kestrel above recommends. I will try this.

 

Another option: buy half ounce Nalgene bottle or clean out old travel shampoo bottle, fill with ink put into ziplock with other liquids. Empty the pen prior to takeoff refill upon landing.

[Rav_LandE]

All my esties leak ink into the cap during plane flights. However I have not so scrupulously tried to keep the pen upright during flight as Kestrel above recommends. I will try this.

 

Another option: buy half ounce Nalgene bottle or clean out old travel shampoo bottle, fill with ink put into ziplock with other liquids. Empty the pen prior to takeoff refill upon landing.

 

 

Thanks for the reply. Emptying out before the flight and filling after, would work well and I do travel with a 15ml Nalgene of ink. However, being a minimalist at heart I don't want to have to carry another pen just for filling the immigration and customs form on a flight.

[inkstainedruth]

Dadgummmmm.

 

I wanna see a DC 3 fly in real life.

 

(At least my Marlin is still tickin'.)

 

I got to fly in a DC-3 in the 1970s. A school social studies teacher in my high school ran a trip to Guatemala, and my parents said "Ooh, do you need chaperones?" We flew on a DC-3 between Guatemala City and Flores. Quite an experience -- all the luggage was in the front, piled up and held in place behind the cockpit by rope netting, some guy wandered into the cockpit to schmooze with the pilot during the flight (not sure if there was a co-pilot), and after we landed they folded up all the seats to load chicle for the flight back to Guatemala City (on the return trip to Guatemala City, we flew on a some fancy schmancy small jet).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[DasKaltblut]

Thanks for the reply. Emptying out before the flight and filling after, would work well and I do travel with a 15ml Nalgene of ink. However, being a minimalist at heart I don't want to have to carry another pen just for filling the immigration and customs form on a flight.

What? Carry just one pen??? Never!

[corgicoupe]

Although my first commercial flight was on an Eastern Airlines DC-4, I too got to fly in a DC-3 in the 1970s. I was teaching at FIT in Melbourne, FL at the time and a few of us had to go to Miami for some meeting. So we climbed aboard the DC-3 owned by FIT and the school VP got in the pilot's seat. I wish I remembered more details of that short flight.

[AL01]

 

I got to fly in a DC-3 in the 1970s. A school social studies teacher in my high school ran a trip to Guatemala, and my parents said "Ooh, do you need chaperones?" We flew on a DC-3 between Guatemala City and Flores. Quite an experience -- all the luggage was in the front, piled up and held in place behind the cockpit by rope netting, some guy wandered into the cockpit to schmooze with the pilot during the flight (not sure if there was a co-pilot), and after we landed they folded up all the seats to load chicle for the flight back to Guatemala City (on the return trip to Guatemala City, we flew on a some fancy schmancy small jet).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Although my first commercial flight was on an Eastern Airlines DC-4, I too got to fly in a DC-3 in the 1970s. I was teaching at FIT in Melbourne, FL at the time and a few of us had to go to Miami for some meeting. So we climbed aboard the DC-3 owned by FIT and the school VP got in the pilot's seat. I wish I remembered more details of that short flight.

 

I have seen DC3s in real life.

 

One was in a museum...

 

And another was converted with two turboprops, (called the BT - 67), and is operated by some Geology (?) company in Houston.

 

I heard that there is some airline out there that still uses DC3s...

[inkstainedruth]

Was it the Museum of Flight in Seattle? I saw the one there. Made me all nostalgic.

BTW -- anyone who ever gets to Seattle for any reason should really make the time to go to the Museum of Flight, because it's really awesome. We didn't get to the Red Barn, but we saw pretty much everything else, and in the WWII Gallery I had my husband take my picture in front of the P51 Mustang, while I was holding my Parker 51 Plum Demi -- just because (wish the photo had turned out better, though...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[kestrel]

Not to hijack the thread but...

 

Buffalo Airways still operates one DC-3, possibly the only DC-3 scheduled passenger service in North America. It operates out of Yellowknife, NWT in Canada. I am sure operators in other countries use them as well.

 

http://www.buffaloairways.com/

 

Back on topic, none of my Esties leaked on my two DC-3 flights in the 1980s. I used all my persuasive powers to try to get some cockpit time to no avail. Sigh.

[AL01]

Good to know, like I said before, some guys in Oshkosh are restoring DC 3s to make them modern again.

 

Maybe they won't be used for passenger flights, but they are still used for other professional uses.

 

I don't think DC3s are pressurized, so it's impressive that a pen won't leak with all of this pressure.

[kestrel]

Good to know, like I said before, some guys in Oshkosh are restoring DC 3s to make them modern again.

 

Maybe they won't be used for passenger flights, but they are still used for other professional uses.

 

I don't think DC3s are pressurized, so it's impressive that a pen won't leak with all of this pressure.

As ambient pressure decreases the air in the pen expands. Ink, a water based fluid, does not expand. If the pen is nib up the expanding air simply flows out through the feed to equalize the pressure. If the pen is nib down, the air will expand and push the ink out through the feed, creating a nasty, but colorful, mess.

 

And even modern jetliners cruise at a cabin altitude of about 6,000 feet as I remember (somebody who knows exactly can chime in) so there is always some air expansion. You can see this if you try to write during the descent from altitude. Now the ambient pressure is higher than the internal pressure so air flows in and even your perfectly tuned, usually wet writing pen will skip and feel dry. If you try writing on the climbout you will make a nasty mess and earn ugly looks from the flight attendants and your seatmates.

 

I flew helicopters for fifteen years and for the last eight of them I always carried an Elysee fountain pen. Granted, helos don't usually go that high (it makes it hard to read the highway signs that tell us where we are) but even when we cruised at several thousand feet my trusty pen never leaked.