Flying with an underwater housing

[Ash176]

I have a Fantasea housing also. Their recommendation is to leave everything as is (i.e. don't remove o-rings) and just put a small piece of paper between the door and the housing and close it like normal. This little wedge is all that's necessary to help equalize pressure while keeping everything closed. I just rip off like a 3-inch by 3-inch piece from some larger sheet and use that.

Hi Jake, when you say wedging a piece of paper between the door and the housing, do you mean wedging at some places or is it necessary to use a piece of paper big enough to be wedged covering the o-ring area?

 

[divinh]

I remove the o-ring. The housing is then closed and wrapped in a towel, then packed at the center of my travel backpack, surrounded by clothes. The travel backpack is checked in.

My carry-on allocation is already dedicated to a camera bag and a dry bag containing my reg setup in a soft reg bag, dive computer in a hardshell, dive mask in a hardshell, Nautilus Lifeline, lithium batteries, and dive logs and cert card.

 

[Glenndini]

Even a change in temperature can cause a housing to to be difficult to open due to low pressure inside. I have found that a few minutes in the sun to warm up the air inside can often be enough to release the partial vacuum and allow opening. I doubt if this would release a housing under post flight vacuum though.

 

[Altamira]

If the o ring is in and the case is closed/locked and you leave it that way you will be fine. If you open it on the plane it will somewhat forcefully pop open. If you close it on the plane, you are screwed, you will have to return to an elevation of 8000 feet, our what ever the plane was pressurized at when you closed it, in order to equalize the pressure so you don't have to pry it open.


Personally, i remove oring, and prop it open for flight. My old pelican hard case for my Nikonos had a screw to release/equalize pressure. That camera stayed closed with the o ring in place and i never had a problem with it developing a squeeze.

Not from my experience. I have a Fantasea housing, and the first time I flew with it, I left it closed with the O ring and camera installed. After landing, the housing would not open even though the takeoff and landing altitudes were similar. I had to use a wrench on the lock knob to get it open. Now I take the O ring out before flight and have had no problems since then.

 

[Jake]

Hi Jake, when you say wedging a piece of paper between the door and the housing, do you mean wedging at some places or is it necessary to use a piece of paper big enough to be wedged covering the o-ring area?

You'll open up the housing and close the door on the paper so that part of it is inside the housing and part of it is outside the housing. Just to be safe, store the camera separately outside the housing during travel if possible.

In their manual for the FG7X II (which I have), they say this:

"Always leave the housing slightly open when transporting by air or traveling through large altitude changes. A piece of paper can be installed between the front and back doors of the housing in order to prevent the housing from completely closing during the flight or altitude changes."
​

Note that even with this advice, I would strongly recommend against opening and closing the housing during a flight. I trust the manufacturer but I don't have that much faith the paper will work.

Attached is a terrible illustration of what I'm talking about.

Housing with paper insert

• Jake
• Dec 20, 2018

 

[2ndjetty]

Just one more thought on this. Most Fantasea housings have two o-rings - one that is easy to remove on outer door and one that is tough to remove on inner door. I would remove the door o-ring and place in plastic bag, and then stick paper or something to prop the door open slightly (all as mentioned). The reason is that if you just prop the door open, some piece of sand, hair, or other debris might find its way into your o-ring/groove. By removing the o-ring, you force yourself to give it a full inspection and clean while prepping the system for dive 1.

 

[Chris Ross]

The simplest way to deal with it is to remove the o-ring, you want to inspect it and the groove anyway after travelling. Even the paper idea - probably works but paper fibres and lint are being invited onto your o-ring. As long as you don't open your housing at altitude you should be fine, but removing the o-ring is simple, just store it in a clean zip lock. The Fanatsea with the second o-ring that is harder to remove/replace may need a different strategy.

I have seen claims that housings will leak under internal pressure when flying then somehow seal again and hold a vacuum. The only way I could see this happening is if the door moved enough to break the seal and it may do this if the latches would allow, it depends on how the o-ring is contained in the groove, The inner o-ring of the Fantasea may allow this to occur but air would also need to get past the outer o-ring. I can't see it happening for strobes and torches as the lid would need to completely unscrew to let air in. In fact both my INON Z-240s and dive torches arrived with o-rings installed and all were shipped by air to get to me. BTW the pressure in the hold is no different to the cabin both are equivalent to 2400m or so above sea level.

 

[Ash176]

So for the Fantasea, do I remove the black or the grey o-ring just to be on the safe side before the flight?

 

[tarponchik]

I've never taken the o-rings out of my housing or lights when flying. I always carry on my camera equipment, and I never open anything while flying. It's never been a problem. One of my instructors told me that he had to check one of his wife's lights recently and he took the batteries out, but then sealed everything back up and due to the lack of pressurization in the luggage hold, it popped, blew the o-ring, and caused the light to flood, so he he now always takes the o-rings out of everything, just in case he has to check something.

Same here. As for the lights, I switched to lights with metal bodies and screw-on caps. To make them pop, you'll have to throw them into a campfire.

 

[2ndjetty]

So for the Fantasea, do I remove the black or the grey o-ring just to be on the safe side before the flight?

I believe the gray o-ring is on the housing door. You should just be able to pinch and pull it off with fingers, or use a guitar pick or credit card to help grab it if that's too tough. Better safe than sorry. Have fun!