Airplane, Leak: Is Pelikan Special?

[Bill]

Try stepping off a plane in Cusco, Peru. It's the equivalent of suddenly jumping from 8000 to 11,000 feet. By the end of the ramp, this lowlander was already gasping. The particular FP with me, a veteran of about 400K air miles so far, did just fine.

[Jerome Tarshis]

To address the original question, no, Pelikan is not special with respect to leaking on airplanes. As the above replies will have suggested. Lots of brands have avoided leaks in flight for some users at some times, although they did leak at other times. For the same or different users. I flew with a Parker 51 for decades without ever leaking more than a few drops on the hood, and then I got a stain on my shirt pocket. True, Parker advertising of years gone by said the pen was engineered to resist leaking on airplanes. Not infallibly engineered, I'm afraid.

 

Best not to take magazine articles or advertising copy too seriously. I've discovered that Parker 51s carried under a sweater may leak even at sea level. Also other pens. It does get warm under a sweater.

 

After my shirt-pocket stain I begain flying with an Aurora c/c pen that hasn't leaked so far. But I've stopped wearing a sweater on top of pens. Using the inside jacket pocket rather than the shirt pocket may be the better idea for ink reasons as well as sartorial reasons.

[abstract49]

Particularly interesting topic for me as SWMBO and I are flying to Scotland (from DFW) first Sunday in September. I've been wondering which one or two pens I will take. One of my favorite daily writers is a Pelikan M800, but I didn't take it on our last overseas flight (Singapore), because it is strictly piston fill; I took something else and carried it with a full cartridge and spares for use at the destination. Now I'm thinking maybe I can take a Pelikan or two, especially if I make sure to start the trip with a full tank. My most likely candidates for cartridges are a Levenger Stealth and several Conway-Stewarts.

 

I haven't had a pocket stain since school days- a testament to the improved quality of pens and their cap fittings since the dark ages. The only leaks I've had in recent years have been due to loosening joints, glue failure, whatever, probably because of my carelessly leaving them in the car in Texas summer heat (I've learned the lesson and try to remember to bring them inside).

[LameJane]

I've come to the conclusion that the notion of leaking of pens in planes is primarily in the category of urban legends (and yes, I've kept track on a systematic basis over a couple of hundred thousand miles of flying in the last two years). Some pens do lose more ink than others, but that's more from evaporation rather than leaking (i.e. depositing a big gob of ink inside the cap).

 

I can assure you that this is not an urban legend. If you take these steps to reproduce, you will experience leaks:

 

1. Fill a piston filler to 1/4 of its capacity or use a cartridge that has 1/4 of ink left in it.

2. During the first 20 minutes after take off, hold/store the pen upside down (nib pointing to the floor).

 

Result: the pen will leak ink into the cap.

 

Knowing this, it is easy to avoid leakage with any pen. Either make sure that the pen is fully inked up or store it upwards (nib pointing to the ceiling) during the first 20 minutes after take off.

 

There is a good video on inknouveau (I think) that explains the physics behind it.