Matt,
Make your Wife look away! Is she looking away??? Yes??? OK then - I Love you Man!!!
OK, with that emotionally trying business out of the way, I have heard fantastic things about the Jetboil stove on Lightfighter.com and elsewhere. But as you said, it is all a function of fuel availability, etc. And in the case of the aircraft "Loadies", it becomes a big-time question of "Fuel Acceptabilitiy". As far as the helo or Herc Loadmasters are concerned, "What they don't know won't hurt them". At the end of the day, if you are combat loading 36 troops on a Chinook with ammo, frags, thermite, containers of trigran, det-cord, dets, etc, etc, then I would have to agree with you that personal propane cylinders are the least of ANYONE's worry!
Having said that, back home working with the Canadian Air Force who own the aircraft (and with whom we must work), I cannot stress enough to the guys reading this board that compressed fuel cylinders will NOT generate unheralded joy with the Crew-Chief of your aircraft. Be it an 8-man chalk on a Griffon, or a 50-man para chalk on a CC-130. True enough that what the "Loadie" doesn't know wont hurt him/her. What I am simply saying is that unless your unit is flying with declared "dangerous cargo manifest" (listed by specific type and pre-approved), you could end up screwing an entire company-level air assault or para-drop just because the Crew-Chief decided to randomly check the wrong side-pouch on a ruck and found the ill-fated "Jet-Boil" cartridge. Chances are slim, but I don't think that you would want to be that guy.....
How often do Canadian troops work with the hyper-anal-retentive Canadian aviation/air assets? Not really enough to worry about it, since we don't have enough lift within the CF to conduct company-level single-lift airmobile assaults unless we catch the entire Canadain Airforce Tac Hel community in one place, at one time, on a particularly good maintenance day, when the weather is just right. Enough said about our Army's "airmobile capability"...... Realistically speaking however, if you are doing the Airmobile/Air Assault thing, the "Jet-Boil" cartridges are worth thinking about and investigating. If you are "Dangerous Cargo" certified and "bombed-up" flying NOE? Who frigging cares? A couple of self-contained fuel canisters are the LEAST of your worries!
But if you are getting on a Herc for a hop, or are taking a hel-flip for a short jump at unusual altitudes, etc? Well, then it might be best to check the acceptability of those fuel cylinders ahead of time. Better safe than sorry....
Which is why I go right back to the non-pressurized fuel tank for an MSR Whisperlite, Dragonfly, etc, stove. Plain old fuel (be it Naptha, JP-8, or gasoline) doesn't tend to get the zoomies in quite the same state of utterly irrational paranoia as compressed gasses do. Don't ask me why... Quite frankly, I can't see anyone getting terribly excited in a combat zone when the bird is already loaded with enough munitions to create a significant mushroom cloud. Fuels were never an issue when we were flying with the U.S. Airforce or Army Aviation guys in Afghanistan. Having said that, pressurized fuel is apparently cause for particular concern....
Just my outdated observations having worked with the U.S Airforce, the U.S. Army, and the Canadian Airforce over the years. The latter will tend to be exceedingly "Anal" - perhaps because they have never flown in actual combat operations. I dunno, and I won't presume. All I will simply offer the Canadian fellows on this board is my "take it or leave it" advice that you stand a much better chance of ending up at "Point B" with a fuelled stove if you opt for one of the non-compressed fuel-bottle types. Pre-loaded fuel cartridges are going to cause you grief in the peace-time Canadian Army if you are are getting on a Canadian Aircraft and manage to get caught with them. Having said that, how often do you get to execute airborne/airmobile ops in the Canadian Army? And the answer is......well just draw your own conclusions about your preferred stove type....
Cheers,