Figured this forum would have people that use these. Can anyone relate any success/failure stories about taking fountain pens on the plane with them. I'm going to Europe in about a week and want to take my fountain pen that I use constantly - hate ball points and roller balls. Thanks!

Scary...can you ask your pen suppler? The chap who keeps mine in tiptop condition knows almost everything about them! You could ask at The Battersea Pen Home - don't know their website address, but you could probably google for it.
If not, put it in a plastic bag...in case! : )

I just happened to see this topic, and as it turns out a former Ph.D. student of mine is also a die-hard vintage fountain pen collector (he also repairs them). So I e-mailed him and asked him this question, and this is what he had to say:

A veteran fountain pen user’s thoughts on flying with fountain pens:

1. Travel with the pen either completely empty or completely full. It’s the expansion of the air inside the ink chamber that forces ink out through the nib – if it’s empty, no ink leaks out (of course, because there’s no ink in it); if it’s full, there’s less air in there to expand and force the ink out.

2. If it’s a modern fountain pen (i.e., it uses ink cartridges or fills from a bottle with a cartridge converter) and you don’t plan to use the pen in flight, the safest bet is to just discard the cartridge that is attached before the flight, and bring a couple of fresh, unopened ones to attach when you reach your destination. If it’s a cartridge converter, leave the converter at home and just bring cartridges. (Using a converter increases the chances of leakage, as they never completely fill (that is, even when freshly filled from a bottle, there is always a bit of air in the converter (see #1), plus, you have to lug around a bottle of ink (unless you are willing to shell out the $100 bucks for a Visconti travel ink pot)).

3. If you do plan to use it on the plane, just be careful – because of the pressure generated in the ink chamber, you’ll run a risk of ink flowing out too quickly when you write. Hold or store the pen nib up when you’re not using it (let gravity help you keep the ink in the pen).

4. If you’re using a vintage pen, good luck. Travel with it empty, or bring a small towel. There are two exceptions, however: Parker “61”s and aerometric fill Parker “51”s are, hands down, the best fountain pens to travel with – they will pretty much only leak if you crash.

5. It might leak no matter what you do.

6. It might not leak.