Montblanc safety pens-flying

[mcannad1]

Anyone ever flown with a montblanc safety pen. Any issues with traveling with them, filled with ink? I would not be using it on the plane, just once having arrived at my destination.

[Chrissy]

This information came from Dr Leighton Davies-Smith, the man behind ScribeTC, speaking at a pen club meeting.
If you don't plan to use the pen on the plane then travel with it empty as it's very easy to take ink in small vials or small bottles.
If you wish to take it filled with ink then you should ensure it's completely full so that as little air as possible is inside with the ink or the increase in air pressure will force ink through and out of the collector into the cap so it will make an inky mess when you remove the cap. The alternative is to have hardly any ink in there so there isn't enough to fill the collector and it can't overflow.

[bunnspecial]

Leighton's advice is great(and he knows more about pens than most of us have forgotten!) but the empty/full advice is true of anything that's not a safety.

A capped safety with the nib retracted is effectively a sealed tube with ink in it. It doesn't matter if it's completely full or if it has a couple of drops of ink in it. You can use it on or off the plane without issue provided the nib is retracted and it's capped during periods of rapid pressure change.

Only when you extend the nib on a safety does it become a "normal" fountain pen where air pressure changes can cause it to burp/blob. Of course in use safeties are effectively eyedroppers with all of their faults. I don't have an MB safety but I do have a Waterman 42 I use periodically, and I do things like pre-warming it in my hand with it uncapped and upright but without the nib extended, and invert it if I sense it starting to burp. Of course you can also retract the nib a bit on a safety for more rapid pressure equalization.

[fountainpenkid]

I flew to Italy and back with an 1910 or so Waterman's 12S Safety with no issue...see what bunnspecial writes above!