Rocketry Planet

WORLD WIDE WEB — Years of hard work paid off recently for Charles Simpson of the United Kingdom Rocketry Association, where he functions as a liaison with the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE), securing certificates of regulatory exemption for the majority of fliers there.

Simpson served for years as the UKRA chairman, and in this capacity he began lobbying HSE for purchase and storage exemptions for small quantities of rocket motors and other materials classified in the United States as "explosives."  After stepping down as chairman, Simpson stayed on as HSE Liaison, working diligently to remove or eliminate burdensome regulatory hurdles for the country's hobby rocketry enthusiasts.

That five year effort paid off on December 4th, 2007, when HSE signed off on the Certificates of Exemption for Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Regulations (MSER) and Control of Explosives Regulations (COER) that granted to following:

MSER Exemption

The main effect of the MSER exemption is that:

• individuals may keep up to 5 kg (net mass) of articles with UN numbers 0186, 0272, 0349, 0351 and 0471 without the need for a registration or storage licence provided that:
  (a) each individual article contains no more than 1 kg (net mass) of explosive
  (b) the articles are intended for use in the propulsion of rocket motors
  (c) they are kept in a safe and suitable place.
• individuals keeping no more than 5 kg of these articles are exempted from separation distance requirements if they are also keeping small quantities of shooters powder (i.e. black powder or smokeless powder).

COER Exemption

The COER exemption certificate means that:

• articles with UN numbers 0186, 0272, 0349, 0351 and 0471 may be acquired and kept without the need for an explosives certificate from the police provided that:
  (a) each individual article contains no more that 1 kg (net mass) of explosive
  (b) the article is intended to be used in the propulsion of model rockets
  (c) they are kept in a safe and suitable place
• individuals (i.e. suppliers) are exempted from the requirement not to transfer the articles covered by the exemption certificate unless the recipient has an explosives certificate;
• the restrictions in COER relating to "prohibited persons" do not apply
• record keeping and loss reporting requirements in COER do not apply.

The effect of the exemptions grants users to purchase and store motors of up to 1 kg, or 2.2 US pounds, which extends into the J-class range.  The 5 kg storage limit, or 11 US pounds, would be enough for about 10 I-class motors.  The caveat of covering black powder is a bonus, when compared to the US where no exemption for black powder exists in current regulations.  The current US exemption of 62.5 grams for APCP, when compared to the UK's new 1,000 gram limit, seems insignificant.

The UKRA extends their thanks to John Harvey of Southern England Rocket Fliers (SERFS), who represented model rocketry enthusiasts alongside UKRA's Simpson in the efforts with HSE, as well as Richard Brown, who served to clarify several issues with both HSE and UKRA.  The UKRA Safety and Technical Committee members include Richard Osborne, Colin Rowe, Rick Newlands and Charles Simpson.

Website: http://www.ukra.org.uk/

UKRA's Colin MacLaren contributed to this story.