Glow engines that dangerous..??
 

Howdy, last time I flew to Brazil I had to confirm that I was NOT bringing any glow engine in my luggage. I wonder what rationale makes glow engines to become included in that list of dangerous items..??? I have bought quite a few model engines overseas before and carried them in my luggage but those days are apparently over..Wonder why..??

Who prohibited the glow engines?

Is this going into Brazil or into your home country?

According to that list, perfectly OK to take matches, lighters and other devices which can set the plane on fire into the cabin on your person.

Who dreams up this stuff?

I would think the fuel with nito might be of more concern than the engine by themselves
Not sure what damage the engine on its own could possibly do

​​​​​​​enjoy

Has anyone ever thrown a glow engine you? I have and I'm telling you it hurts like hell!

Going from Sweden to Brazil.

On two separate visits, I have given a Brazilian friend engines to take back to Brazil. He hasn't mentioned any difficulty with getting them into the country.

I had no idea that glow engines were classified in the same group as hand grenades! My my. All you glow flyers are dangerous terrorist threats! LOL!
Turn yourselves in immediately to the DHS ! Next stop Gitmo! LOL!
I have consulted the Book of Armaments and there is nothing written about glow engines. There are however, instructions for the Holy Hand Grenade.

No, no. You misunderstand.

In answering my question OP said this applies to entering Brazil.

Has nothing to do with Gitmo or your USA DHS.

What is the verdict here?

A recent trip overseas with Lufthansa had a similar list of forbidden items and the O.S. engine picture caught my attention - is it only O.S. engines or all glow engines or anything glow engine related? What if you removed the glow plug? What about four-strokes?

Let's say you wanted to bring a .30-size model helicopter equipped with a glow engine aboard an airline flight to Europe - could it be done? Assembled or unassembled? Could you bring the same heli without the engine? What about an airplane, car, or boat equipped with a similar engine? What about a turbine? How about a DLE 30? How do modeler's participating in world competitions overseas do it?

Just as a matter of course, sometime earlier this century, I was exiting past an airport security area on my way back from a trip and did a "double-take" while passing an x-ray monitor when... something caught my attention! There were few people around and I stopped momentarily to glance at what I thought was a negative/x-ray image of a high-performance model engine and tuned pipe. I couldn't stay long enough to gawk and process the image before a TSA officer came running up and yelled at me to "KEEP MOVING SIR!"

Jeez, what's the big deal about transporting model engines?

Gee, my Tartan Twin went through with no problems! Glad I had not seen this article before.

A friend and I were discussing this, and he mentioned something about traces of Nitro Methane, or residual elements of the fuel perhaps triggering a "sniffer" that might confuse that with a type of explosive???

IIRC Nitric acid is one residue of glow fuel, after it has been run through an engine...and I think Formaldehyde is a by product of the Methanol?

I wonder if a Glow ("Nitro") engine that has never been run would set off any warning alarms?

Thanks proptop, that explanation does make sense...! So we must now clean our engines and wrap them carefully in plastic bags to avoid the "sniffer" detecting them.

OK but horseshoes are also not allowed. What's with that? Or maybe that is a magnet? BTW a sophisticated gas engine can look just like a glow engine. Are they allowed? And what is the problem with recorders? Has people been irritating the passengers by playing them? So why are flutes allowed but not recorders?

They might be talking about tape, or other forms of voice or video recorders...same with lap top computers...
New forms of plastic explosives that can be molded / shaped into various forms / disguises, which might include components of familiar electronic devices?

I ain't no TSA expert here S-P...just going from what I've seen on "the news"...but my friend just sort of said something about residual elements of combusted glow fuel,
and that made me go hmmm...

Where do you get that "recorders" are not allowed?

They have a pic of a recorder. Actually I see they are allowed if on your person. I don't understand that at all.

No they have a pic of a musical recorder. Sort of like a wooden flute.

Not enough fumes to matter. Are gas engines not allowed? The fumes from gas engines would be more dangerous. Bet someone is getting nitro methane confused with nitro glycerin. Or they assume the fumes are more dangerous because they see that AA nitro funny cars and dragsters use it. But nitro is actually much less flammable than gasoline. It only makes more power because you can run it extremely rich. There is some danger transporting a can of liquid fuel because it can explode when instantly compressed but would only happen in a bad crash. But the left over fuels are relatively harmless.

Have a look at the link above...and imagine what a Racing Slot car controller looks like to some bored TSA person at the Airport...someone who has to screen hundreds, or thousands of people every day...from what I have seen they are hardly "experts" ...?

From what little I do know, as far as "Sniffers" are concerned (working in the Aircraft Painting Industry) they can be extremely sensitive...as in PPM (Parts Per Million) and I am fairly certain that most TSA people are not experts in all things nitro methane related as you are S-P... :) If the sniffer beeps, you get pulled out of the line.
I wouldn't worry so much about "Recorders" Sport...they probably won't discover yours unless they do a cavity search... ;) JK

That is a picture of an E-Cig.
This is how mis info gets started.

But isn't the Tartan Twin a gasoline/ignition engine? It certainly doesn't look anything like an O.S. two stroke 'FX series' or any other O.S. single for that matter.

The drawing in the list of dangerous goods sure does look like an O.S. glow engine to me - and it is the FX series to be specific. Does that mean that only O.S. Max 'FX series' engines are forbidden?

Sure does look that way to me - characteristic square head and same three-quarter view drawing typical of O.S. brand drawings in the owner's manuals; take a look at the pics below and compare to image in list of dangerous goods...

Last image is of Tartan twin for contrast.


https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.y...90&o=4&pid=1.7https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.7...90&o=4&pid=1.7http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...1&d=1498301952https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.p...90&o=4&pid=1.7

As I said before. My Brazilian friend has brought back two glow engines, that I gave him. The tartan twin comment reminded my that I gave him a US 41, too.

My friend mentioned no difficulty in getting any of these engines in to Brazil.