I read it a long time ago, but I’m sure in Don Charlwood’s No Moon Tonight he (the navigator) had a flask of coffee which he shared out early in the outbound leg while it was still quiet
Didn’t I read somewhere that opening a flask of hot tea or coffee at altitude, in a non pressurised aircraft, is not a good idea. Something to do with the boiling point of water as pressure decreases, I think.
Good point!
A quick Google suggests that at 20,000ft water boils at 79 degrees C. If you put boiling tea in an airtight flask and kept it sealed during the climb, it would indeed tend to flash-boil when you opened it. Whether that would be particularly hazardous or just result in an irritating loss of tea, I don’t know.
Suggest it could be mitigated by starting with the tea not quite boiling and either using a non-airtight container or venting it every few minutes.
gallois wrote:
Didn’t I read somewhere that opening a flask of hot tea or coffee at altitude, in a non pressurised aircraft, is not a good idea. Something to do with the boiling point of water as pressure decreases, I think.
I’ve seen some embarrassing opening of even Joghurt packs.. usually makes a change of uniform necessary.
As for bottles, unscrew them s l o w l y and it should be fine.
But we are talking of aircraft with no heating and OATs less than minus 5 and often as low as minus 30 or less, and no carpet, just a metal floor. On top of this they may well have spilled their tepid tea or coffee whilst avoiding ack ack fire or being shot at by another aircraft. That is besides the weather and not a lot in terms of Nav equipment.
“The debate has been going on for many years, and will probably continue until piston airplane engines are no longer used”.
From The Piper Indians by Bill Clarke, 1988.
It could refer to just about anything 
Capitaine wrote:
It could refer to just about anything
Let me guess, topic was about future AVGAS availability?
I am impressed
80/87 v. 100 v. 100LL v. mogas
Capitaine wrote:
80/87 v. 100 v. 100LL v. mogas
That topic is “urgent” and “the end is near” since back to 1980, at least. 
