Re: Can Christmas decoration lasers blind a pilot?

Post #431,951 by jake123 12/13/19 11:10:01 AM 12/13/19 11:10:01 AM Reply	Re: Can Christmas decoration lasers blind a pilot? Here's a video of Chilean protesters using classroom laser pointers to mess with police helicopters during recent protests, from inside the helicopter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIi0FXi6ecA The pilot eventually broke off because they were unable to fly safely. Admittedly, this is an extreme example because there are dozens of them being used, but I think the point stands.
Post #431,952 by drook 12/13/19 2:06:24 PM 12/13/19 2:06:24 PM Reply	Pretty sure those are much higher power Christmas lights are not laser pointers, which are not high power lasers. When you try to scare people away from something that might, possibly, under the exact wrong circumstances, possibly cause someone a minor inconvenience, you really damage your credibility. There are still people who believe the razor blades in Halloween candy nonsense. But a whole generation has grown up since it became widely known that that was a myth. Keep crying wolf, eventually you'll mean it, but you know the rest of that story. -- Drew
Post #431,957 by scoenye 12/13/19 7:10:25 PM 12/13/19 7:10:25 PM Reply	Just one https://mashable.com/2015/12/08/holiday-laser-lights/ It is likely one of the two incidents you found and this is the only report mentioning the pilot being blinded. If the FAA ever issued a formal report, it is well buried. But I think "blinded" includes not being able to see out the cockpit, i.e. if the beam scatters inside the windscreen.
Post #431,963 by drook 12/13/19 11:30:04 PM 12/13/19 11:30:04 PM Reply	Yep, that's one of them And it was at more than 13 times the manufacturer's claimed safe range. Sure, they could be lying, but that's a huge discrepancy. Besides that, the windshield would have passed through a fixed beam so fast it would have to be super bright to have that effect. To stay aimed into the cockpit long enough to matter, it would have to be to the front at a very low angle. Since the plane was 13k feet up, the source would have to be more than 13k feet ahead, meaning the range was >18k feet. That was not a Christmas display. -- Drew
Post #431,965 by scoenye 12/14/19 1:59:38 PM 12/14/19 1:59:39 PM Reply	Cops roasted the wrong operator then :-/ That would explain why there are no other reported incidents if the display the cops found was not to blame. The FAA has been regurgitating the warning ever since but that does knock the legs out from under it.

Welcome to IWETHEY!