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By MICHAEL McNARNEY mmcnarney@leader.net
Sunday, March 09, 2003 Page: 3A
CLARKS SUMMIT – Drake Damerau is livid.
“We just want to fly rockets!” the Clarks Summit 38-year-old man said.
“We don’t want to hurt anybody.”
Damerau’s hobby, model rockets, ranks up there with stamp collecting and
ham radios in the annals of harmless-seeming pastimes. But the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wants to impose rigorous regimens on
people who build and launch high-powered model rockets.
The bureau wants to fingerprint enthusiasts, check their backgrounds and
inspect their home storage areas. It also wants to restrict shipment through
the mail of solid rocket fuel.
Sport rocketry attracts thousands of hobbyists across the country. The
rockets can stand taller than an adult, soar miles into the sky and are
designed to land intact nearby.
Damerau said the proposed restrictions will hurt the hobby badly. He is the
Web master for the Northeastern Pennsylvania Rocketry Association
(http://nepra.com), which meets regularly during warmer weather near Nicholson
to launch rockets.
The ATF says the most commonly used model-rocket motors, which are smaller
and typically use a weaker fuel, do not require permits and will not be
affected.
Damerau said shippers will not want to go through the hassle of licensing
all of their drivers to carry the fuel, and will refuse to ship many items all
together.
“It’s going to kill model rockets for kids,” Damerau said. “It’s
ludicrous!”
Damerau said state police in New Hampshire conducted an experiment to see
how dangerous the solid rocket fuel is. Using blasting caps and then primer
cord, police were able only to blow the fuel into small pieces – not to ignite
it.
Then, they put the fuel in an open fire – it burns about like a flare,
Damerau said, and didn’t create a hazard.
“I personally know people who have lit cigars with the stuff,” Damerau
said. “And the ATF is saying this stuff is an explosive!”
Curtailed shipping could lead to a de facto ban on motor sales, said
Gregory Lyzenga, a model-rocket enthusiast and geophysics researcher at NASA’s
Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“It’s not as though there’s been a law passed saying model rocketry is
illegal, but it’s just that the materials are unavailable,” Lyzenga said.
Rocketeers are suing ATF in federal court in Washington to force it to
change its classification of APCP as an explosive. They say APCP burns and
does not blow up. A decision is pending.
“The gasoline in the tank of your car would make a better bomb,” Lyzenga
said. “If I was looking for what I thought was a serious danger to public
safety, I certainly would not start here.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Michael McNarney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7305.