Have you seen those decorations that project Christmas lights on your house? Like these. Back in 2017 the FAA put out a bulletin asking people to make sure they weren't pointed up too high as they could blind or distract pilots.
It just got picked up again and my mother-in-law saw it on the local news. This sounds so ridiculously unlikely to me. I'm convinced it's like the urban legend of razor blades in Halloween candy - an annual easy news story, but one that never actually happened.
I can see lots of reposts and repeats of the same original allegations, but only two instances of actual pilots claiming to have been affected. Both reported they were distracted, not blinded.
Most of the commercial kits seem to be < 2mW. Looking at the FAA safe range charts, that means the "distraction" distance (lowest hazard category) is likely to top out at under a mile. You'd have to be really close to the airport, and aim straight into the flight path, for that to be a problem.
It just got picked up again and my mother-in-law saw it on the local news. This sounds so ridiculously unlikely to me. I'm convinced it's like the urban legend of razor blades in Halloween candy - an annual easy news story, but one that never actually happened.
I can see lots of reposts and repeats of the same original allegations, but only two instances of actual pilots claiming to have been affected. Both reported they were distracted, not blinded.
Most of the commercial kits seem to be < 2mW. Looking at the FAA safe range charts, that means the "distraction" distance (lowest hazard category) is likely to top out at under a mile. You'd have to be really close to the airport, and aim straight into the flight path, for that to be a problem.