Gary Rosenfield/AeroTech is posting that motor shipments of less than 30 grams propellant each and a gross shipping box mass maximum of 25 lbs can ship WITHOUT HAZMAT fees.

Also, motors with greater than 30 grams of propellant but no more than 62.5 grams of propellant each can be shipped in a box with no greater than a 10 lbs gross mass again NO HAZMAT.

I am waiting to hear more about how this came about.

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Bob
S.A.M. # 0014

Wowwwww !
Great.
Have the restrictions on individuals shipping motors been lifted too ???

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.

That's really cool information, Bob. I wonder if this is what's actually behind the recent Estes "waiving" of HAZMAT charges for ordering their 29mm motors. They would fall in the second category you described.

Yeah, it would be really cool to know more about how that happened if it did.

I'm not going to hold my breath on personal shipping of motors, but that would be cool, too.



Added: MUCH more detail posted in the big Aerotech thread on "that other forum". Sounds really good.

But no, GH, it doesn't look like it allows individuals to ship motors, though I haven't waded through all of the info yet.

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

Overall, the procedural requirements appear to be the same as those for shipping ammo, as far as packaging and labeling requirements. In particular, this:



appears to indicate that anybody who follows the procedures can ship the stuff, not just special people. Which was the case with ammo, last time I checked everything there.

IANAL.

Wow. Well, it's good to be wrong about being pessimistic.

The "no changes to inner packagings" thing would be a constraint on some reselling. For instance, most of my motors are no longer in the Estes packages, but most of my Aerotech reloads are still in factory packaging so this suggests I could ship an unopened pack of Aerotech reloads but not out-of-package Estes motors. Interesting.

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

This appears to be a DOT relaxation, so if you follow the packing/labeling you could go via ground ups or fedex but according to Gary does not change the USPS requirments which still requires an approval letter and less than 30 grams propellent.

Frank

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RC Rocket glider kits
www.dynasoarrocketry.com

So, likely, any entity that today uses USPS to ship <30gm motors can continue to do so, and will in many cases. But the rest of us, and anyone wanting to ship up to G and <62.5gm motors, can do so using UPS and FedEx ground freight as long as they use the required packaging and put the "limited quantities" sticker on the outside. (As a very high-level summary. Always read the complete documents and ensure you understand them correctly.)

I was going to start a thread about this several weeks ago. Estes had a sale on thier new F15-4 Bulk Paks, where you get 8 motors for $99 - and NO Haz-MUTT fee, as GH would say. wondered how'd they did that, since the box that came was from UPS but did NOT sport the usual Haz stickers, nor did I have to sign for this - the last two HPR DMS motor shipments some years ago were in double-corrugated boxes, HAZ stickers, and signed for. These were just dropped off on my doorstep. Oh yea, also got to use a 15% discount code on that order as well, so that made it really worthwhile.

Now, if this is actually a DOT reg relaxation, I wonder if guys like AC Supply will get in on this too? THey were showing the $37 Haz-MUTT fee last time I checked.

Wonder who's behind this? Did Estes or AT petition the DOT for some relief? Seems like a step in the right direction.

It ought to apply to motors up to at least 10 POUNDS.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.

I will let someone else tell the story about how this came about.

Basically, somebody noticed that if the DOT-E-7887 exemption and the separate Hazmat regs were 'combined' then shipment of motors with no more than 62.5 grams of propellant each were not 'explosive' but model rocket motors/flammable solid. This was confirmed by a DOT Rep.

I am sure glad the manufacturers did not let the DOT-E-7887 exemption expire like what almost happened nearly 30 years ago.

There's a lot more to it but I will let someone more qualified tell the tale.

__________________
Bob
S.A.M. # 0014