A few weeks ago I got a call to move a 10,000 lb. piece of metal working equipment out of a building, load it on a truck and deliver it 20 miles away and then unload again. In doing the job (right up my alley, used my 30 ton National for the lifting, a 15 K capacity CAT reach forklift, and a Kenworth 20' flatbed, fun stuff), I got to know the husband and wife team who had hired me and at one point I of course asked what in the hell they were going to use the piece of equipment for.

Turns out, they produce a folding all stainless steel camp grill, after first designing the thing and getting all the bugs out, and then patenting it. I immediately saw the advantages of it for the airplane camper: it takes up almost zero room when folded, and is constructed in such a way that you could taxi over it without harming it. The longer I looked at it and played with it, and with it's designer right there telling me how the design changed as he developed it (asking him things like," how did you decide how many and how large of holes to use to allow proper airflow") gave me a real appreciation of what a neat piece of equipment it was. They recently closed a deal with Sportman's Warehouse to sell them, but NOT in California! It seems to be able to sell them in California, they'd have to provide voluminous documentation on the composition and combustion of charcoal briquettes, or words to that effect. Too much hassle anyway to sell to California, if anyone there wants one, PM me and I'll slip one to you on the sly!

Stainless, being stainless, is not known for lightness, but at 11 lbs or so it ain't bad, and it's so compact it could maybe go places other then the main baggage compartment, about anywhere. The thing about the folding process, is if you do it wrong it will seem ungainly, do it right (and it's designer made sure I did it right, correcting me when I did it wrong, it obviously bugged him when his grill wasn't unfolded properly) and it falls into place in mere seconds, the same with folding it back up, it takes about the same time to unfold it as it does to unzip and take it out of it's carrying bag, seconds,) and twigs and any wood debris is the preferred fuel source, screw charcoal. Don't get one of these for your wife (I vaguely remember getting anything related to kitchen ware for your wife for a Christmas present is a very bad idea ), rather, let her get one for you. It should last a lifetime, and is being manufactured about 24 miles from where I sit. Not particularly cheap, but made in the US of A out of high quality stainless. http://WWW.FLATOUTBACKEN.COM