Soda and Beer bottles in the plane

Anthony

Anthony

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Anthony
I'll be coming back from Myrtle Beach soon and want to bring the unused soda and beer bottles from our trip. Depending on the winds I'll be at least at 7,500 or 9,500 feet MSL. Will this be a problem? I've never transported anything pressurized before. I assume an unopened wine bottle will be OK too. Yeah, people didn't drink as much as I thought including me. :smile:
 
Its not a problem. Cabin altitude in the airliners is between 5,400 and 8,500 and it isn't even a consideration for them.
 
You never thought twice about opening a pop when you lived here did you? :)
 
We carry carts full of soda at a cabin altitude of 8,000 feet, with no problem. Bags of chips and such will sometimes explode up there, but soda isn't usually an issue so long as it stays cool. On a related note, my wife managed to blow up a case of soda in her car (at sea level) because it got too hot.
 
I transported a sealed beer bottle at 11,000 feet from Oregon a few days ago. It's sitting in my fridge still intact. Just in case I put it inside a cooler.
 
There's not enough air inside a sealed, unopened wine/soda bottle/can to produce sufficient pressure to blow the top at any cabin altitude that doesn't required masks. However, if you bring a 3/4 empty water bottle along from sea level to 12,000 feet or so, you might get a structural failure of the container and spillage. Potato chip bags and the like are a problem because they have a much greater volume-percentage of air and a much less structurally sound container.

BTW, opening that unopened container could get interesting if it contains a carbonated beverage. And for your water bottles, if you drink some at 10,000, close the cap tight, and then descend to sea level, it's going to be flat, not round, when you get there.
 
And for your water bottles, if you drink some at 10,000, close the cap tight, and then descend to sea level, it's going to be flat, not round, when you get there.
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And if you do this the opposite way around, when you open up your water bottle at 10000', it will spray all over your face. This totally messes up the whole pilot aura thing for the passengers.
-harry
 
I've noticed the almost-empty water bottles sucking themselves in when descending from a 8,000' cabin altitude to sea level but I've never had them explode when going the other way. I have also not had problems with potato chip bags at 8,000' cabin altitude. On the other hand they don't do too well in unpressurized baggage at 41,000'. :redface:
 
mantakos said:
And if you do this the opposite way around, when you open up your water bottle at 10000', it will spray all over your face. This totally messes up the whole pilot aura thing for the passengers.
-harry
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Personal experience? Like Mari said, it isn't a big deal at 8,000 feet and there just isn't enough air volume for that to be an issue.

However, if you were talking about an partially empty bottle...
 
Not an issue up through the low teens in my experience. I've brought many cases of wine back from CA, soda for fly-ins, etc. Never an issue. You do have to be careful opening things in the cabin. Thermos of coffee can be dangerous. Slowly match the pressures.
 
On a like note, rate of climb is what one must look out for when carrying lobsters in an external pod, but taking victor routes vice jet routes is a good insurance policy when eighteen of your closest friends and their significant others are hungrily waiting. :rolleyes:
 
catmandu said:
On a like note, rate of climb is what one must look out for when carrying lobsters in an external pod, but taking victor routes vice jet routes is a good insurance policy when eighteen of your closest friends and their significant others are hungrily waiting. :rolleyes:
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Now there is a post I'd like to hear the details about.....

-Skip
 
weve had wine bottles and soda cans in the unpressurized compartment up to the mid 30s no problemo
 
Skip Miller said:
Now there is a post I'd like to hear the details about.....

-Skip
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One of my all-time favorite personal ATC communications:

Cruising along at 14000, having gotten there at a numbingly fragile 500 fpm:

ZBW, with a heavy Boston accent: "Navy Alpha Bravo 307, Boston Center, we DO have higher available for you today ?!?!?!?"

ME: "Unable today, thanks anyway."

ZBW: "307, say again?"

ME: "Unable, due to, uh, pressure sensitive cargo onboard today."

ZBW: "Navy AB307 . . . roger."

<about a one minute delay, where I bet the strip was examined showing my origination at NAS Brunswick, ME, and my ultimate, NAS Cecil Field, FL>

ZBW: "Navy AB307, Boston, . . . would there be a whole bunch of little pressure sensitive cargoes onboard?"

ME, with a big grin under the mask: "That would be affirmative, Boston."

I was a young Naval Aviator, tasked with the inglorious task of taking a plane to Maine to act as a target for a ship's radar after a recent stint in the shipyard. But most importantly, the Skipper loaded my jet with a blivet (external fuel tank converted to cargo pod) to bring back the goods for a Saturday night squadron party. Prior to my launch north, our crusty Maintenance Master Chief sufficiently scared me with tales of failure, and a stern warning just before I walked to the jet: "I will NOT waste my sailor's time cleaning lobster puree off the inside of that effing blivet, Loooo-tenant!"

As always, I was the hero, the lobster was wonderful! :smile:
 
Anthony said:
I'll be coming back from Myrtle Beach soon and want to bring the unused soda and beer bottles from our trip. Depending on the winds I'll be at least at 7,500 or 9,500 feet MSL. Will this be a problem? I've never transported anything pressurized before. I assume an unopened wine bottle will be OK too. Yeah, people didn't drink as much as I thought including me. :smile:
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No Worries
 
catmandu said:
I was a young Naval Aviator, tasked with the inglorious task of taking a plane to Maine to act as a target for a ship's radar after a recent stint in the shipyard. But most importantly, the Skipper loaded my jet with a blivet (external fuel tank converted to cargo pod) to bring back the goods for a Saturday night squadron party. Prior to my launch north, our crusty Maintenance Master Chief sufficiently scared me with tales of failure, and a stern warning just before I walked to the jet: "I will NOT waste my sailor's time cleaning lobster puree off the inside of that effing blivet, Loooo-tenant!"

As always, I was the hero, the lobster was wonderful! :smile:
Click to expand...

Lobsters routinely get winched to the surface from depths of 10atm and greater. No worries in the pod to any altitude an air breathing plane will fly at, although they will dry out at high altitude.
 
Thanks, didn't think there would be a problem. I am more worried now about the glass bottles knocking together in turbulence, so a secured container should fix that. :D
 
Henning said:
Lobsters routinely get winched to the surface from depths of 10atm and greater. No worries in the pod to any altitude an air breathing plane will fly at, although they will dry out at high altitude.
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Strange, at the time I did not seek to challenge the wisdom of a Master Chief with the science of crustaceans with gills . . . :D
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Its not a problem.
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Ron Levy said:
There's not enough air inside a sealed, unopened wine/soda bottle/can to produce sufficient pressure to blow the top at any cabin altitude that doesn't required masks.
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I was gonna say "Au contraire" to the above, since we *did* have someone leave an unopened soda can in the 182 that subsequently exploded, but...

sba55 said:
Just don't take Dr. Pepper. It blows up at altitudes as low as 4700'....
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Felix has got it. It was Diet Dr. Pepper. Interesting.
 
Everskyward said:
We take Dr. Pepper and Diet Dr. Pepper up in the plane along with other brands and nothing has happened to them.
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Weird. Well, at least two of us have had 'em explode at lower altitudes...

I wonder what Diet Coke and Mentos does in an airplane. :rofl:
 
Anthony said:
Thanks, didn't think there would be a problem. I am more worried now about the glass bottles knocking together in turbulence, so a secured container should fix that. :D
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One time I transported multiple beer bottles in checked airline luggage by putting socks over each individual bottle and using clothing to secure everything in place. This was definitely during the pre-TSA era.
 
if by 'blow up' you mean 'fizz all over and spill everywhere when opened', yes I have seen that at 6K. But a factory sealed beverage, not seen it.
 
Henning said:
Lobsters routinely get winched to the surface from depths of 10atm and greater. No worries in the pod to any altitude an air breathing plane will fly at, although they will dry out at high altitude.
Click to expand...
Lobsters must be pretty sturdy. The guys told me they brought back a couple boxes of them from Boston in unpressurized (but heated) baggage. I couldn't believe they survived a 4 hour flight probably up at FL400.
 
Everskyward said:
Lobsters must be pretty sturdy. The guys told me they brought back a couple boxes of them from Boston in unpressurized (but heated) baggage. I couldn't believe they survived a 4 hour flight probably up at FL400.
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They're prehistoric creatures, you don't stick around for a billion years without being rather sturdy. As long as they were transported in coolers full of water or ice (as is typical for shipping them) they'll be just fine.
 
Everskyward said:
Lobsters must be pretty sturdy. The guys told me they brought back a couple boxes of them from Boston in unpressurized (but heated) baggage. I couldn't believe they survived a 4 hour flight probably up at FL400.
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My dad brought some home in the unpressurized, unheated compartment of a military jet. They froze. We had them thawing in the kitchen sink when we heard "scratch, scratch, plunk, scratch, scratch, plunk" Went back in the kitchen to find the lobster crawling around the floor!

Barb
 
catmandu said:
On a like note, rate of climb is what one must look out for when carrying lobsters in an external pod, but taking victor routes vice jet routes is a good insurance policy when eighteen of your closest friends and their significant others are hungrily waiting. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Not that I did much better than 500 FPM, but I can vouch for this with regards to bushel baskets of Maryland Blue Shelll crabs. Annapolis to Cincinnati is about 4 hours at 12000'. They were quite tasty, thank you.
 
wsuffa said:
Not that I did much better than 500 FPM, but I can vouch for this with regards to bushel baskets of Maryland Blue Shelll crabs. Annapolis to Cincinnati is about 4 hours at 12000'. They were quite tasty, thank you.
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Bill, we'll have to do a crab run soon! Love 'em!
 
catmandu said:
One of my all-time favorite personal ATC communications:

Cruising along at 14000, having gotten there at a numbingly fragile 500 fpm:

ZBW, with a heavy Boston accent: "Navy Alpha Bravo 307, Boston Center, we DO have higher available for you today ?!?!?!?"

ME: "Unable today, thanks anyway."

ZBW: "307, say again?"

ME: "Unable, due to, uh, pressure sensitive cargo onboard today."

ZBW: "Navy AB307 . . . roger."

<about a one minute delay, where I bet the strip was examined showing my origination at NAS Brunswick, ME, and my ultimate, NAS Cecil Field, FL>

ZBW: "Navy AB307, Boston, . . . would there be a whole bunch of little pressure sensitive cargoes onboard?"

ME, with a big grin under the mask: "That would be affirmative, Boston."

I was a young Naval Aviator, tasked with the inglorious task of taking a plane to Maine to act as a target for a ship's radar after a recent stint in the shipyard. But most importantly, the Skipper loaded my jet with a blivet (external fuel tank converted to cargo pod) to bring back the goods for a Saturday night squadron party. Prior to my launch north, our crusty Maintenance Master Chief sufficiently scared me with tales of failure, and a stern warning just before I walked to the jet: "I will NOT waste my sailor's time cleaning lobster puree off the inside of that effing blivet, Loooo-tenant!"

As always, I was the hero, the lobster was wonderful! :smile:
Click to expand...


Awesome story!!!!:D
 
I had one pop at sea level- we crossed some wake in a sail boat and noticed a "hiss" immediately afterwards. After tracking the sound down, we found out a chunk of ice punctured the paper-thin soda can wall. Apparently the cans are made like an Atlas missle stage- they are rigid from pressurization but have little strength on their own.

Keep the cans in an ice-chest (to contain any leakers) and pack them so nothing shifts in turbulance.
 
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