Model Rocket Ignition System in Carry-On?

Can we carry parts for a model rocket ignition system in our carry-on luggage? Or will we have it confiscated by the nannies?

Please follow the thread as it moves to the apt travel security forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

I assume you've checked the TSA webpage, which doesn't directly answer your question.
http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-informat...ohibited-items

A better description of the specific items would be helpful. Obviously anything flammable is a no-go, but you said "parts" so I figure you mean hardware.

I bring printed circuit boards and assemblies, along with other strange-looking items and bits of wires in my carry on and have yet to have anything confiscated.

Watch the length of tools - I leave behind or check anything that could be interpreted as prohibited.

I've had items pulled out of my bag and swabbed, at which point I dutifully announce to the screener that I've been spraying it with weak organic acids. (True, and irrelevant as vinegar falls in that category of materials.) It tends to minimize the smurf's time handling my articles.

I'm betting the TSA folks would have a problem with the equipment. As I remember from model rocket days; battery pack (usually 6 D cell), wires (one about 12 feet long going from a plastic "launch button" to the battery pack; Short wires from battery pack ending in a nub where igniters are fitted), igniters (Small "matches" with metal instead of cardboard). Frankly, the setup is great for what it is designed to do...ignite a small rocket motor.
(note, witout something to ignight, the above would be no more harmless than a pack of matches.)

The actual ignitors look like small ceramic disc capacitors and as such shouldn't be too alarming--but they are flammable and thus probably technically prohibited.

The nannies won't care, but a TSA Officer might. Not worth the hassle if you get bagged.

I would assume the igniters themselves are prohibited aboard the aircraft as they're very flammable and you're not supposed to be carrying such stuff on board. Likewise the engines--I've seen one of those fired on the ground (one New Years the neighbor kids fired a bare engine pointed at the ground. It didn't stay pointed down.), I certainly wouldn't like to see that on board a plane!

The rest of the rig--so long as it's an ordinary commercial unit it pretty much just looks like a powerpack. Why would they recognize it?

On the other hand, it *WOULD* set off blasting caps just as easily as it sets off rockets. I could imagine a TSA agent who did recognize it saying no.

Look, not to put to fine a point on this, but why in the world would you want to carry something on that is used to detonate or ignite solid fuels? Are you just looking to get a trip to a private room, a long, drawn out interaction with some folks you don't really want to meet, and the prospect of your rights to fly seriously affected in future?

Sheesh. UPS, Fedex, even the USPS, so long as your stuff is not prohibited by their tariffs, packaged and marked correctly would seem to be a much less risky means of getting this device from one place to another.

That is the way I remember it as well. Disassemble, separate, buy batteries locally, and if you can not get the engines locally, ship the engines by USPS Priority Mail. (Probably not allowed, but neither is bourbon and they took that.)

I just wouldn't bring it, period. They're not that expensive, get one locally wherever you're going to get your engines. (TSA will quite rightly not allow the engines.) I wouldn't even ship them, the post office would be very unhappy indeed if they should happen to discover them.

Not to mention that unless you have some special collapsible launch rail you aren't going to be able to pack the launcher and thus will have to be using something local. If you have access to a local launcher why not a local ignition system?

Estes ships theirs by USPS but you must have a physical mailbox.

Probably with a ground-only restriction on them. I've ordered lead-acid batteries (gel, not liquid) and they've come by UPS but with a notation on the box that it must not go by air.