Page 3 of 9 FirstFirst 1234567 ... LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 89

Thread: Another Laser Pointer Idiot

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Smile

    To be honest, it's probably not. A small, legal pointer isn't going to be a hazard unless you're aiming it at a helicopter that is only a few hundred feet away.

    The threat is fairly overblown even with higher powered lasers (such as the Wicked Lasers Arctic Spyder 3, which makes a watt of blue and can be had for around $300), since you still have the problem of how to hold the beam steady enough to hit a pilot's pupil from thousands of feet away. But the higher power level does mean you can cause a distraction from a much greater distance.

    Still, if I was I pilot, knowing what I know about lasers, I'd rather deal with a pointer than a cloud of balloons.

    Adam

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Posts
    1,622

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by buffo View Post

    Still, if I was I pilot, knowing what I know about lasers, I'd rather deal with a pointer than a cloud of balloons.

    Adam

    Absolutely. A balloon (or group of them) in the wrong place at the kind of speeds most aircraft travel could bring down the craft. A laser is merely an annoyance and a distraction.

    The searchlight comment earlier is profound.. why aren't there restrictions on searchlights?

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Smile

    Quote Originally Posted by ElektroFreak View Post
    why aren't there restrictions on searchlights?
    Excellent question... I have no answer though.

    Adam

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Churchill(hour S from Houston)
    Posts
    1,354

    Default

    Its too bad that being STOOPID is not extemely painful as we would see many fools writhing in pain rolling about on the ground.

    I do agree that the press loves to make mountains from molehills.

    We all need to inform every one we come into contact with about being responsible with ANY laser and any time. even 5mW pens.

    I tell people all the time that even playing with the family dog or cat with a red pens can be a very bad idea. that is what old tennis balls and other cat toys are for. my .02

    hak

  5. #25
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Bend Oregon USA
    Posts
    3,350

    Default

    same old song for 30 years, just a new group of singers.
    Pat B

    laserman532 on ebay

    Been there, done that, got the t-shirt & selling it in a garage sale.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Miami, FL
    Posts
    3,590

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by DjHeadie View Post
    100 balloons can come and go without leaving one flash-blinded or disoriented? there is no actual effect any baloon can have on ones eyes other than to simply obscure vision whilst the laser pointer proposes a threat to vision itself (not just the current field of)
    yes but if 100 balloons get sucked into your engine your going to have bigger issues

  7. #27
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    5,704

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by flecom View Post
    yes but if 100 balloons get sucked into your engine your going to have bigger issues
    Yeah you're never going to find the prize tag!

  8. #28
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Phoenix,Az
    Posts
    285

    Default Balloons vers Little green pointer

    @ LASERCHIK,
    To answer your question, Balloons Filled with a lighter than air gass are always on the move and being that a rotor wing or fixed wing moves a large amount of air (Propellers and rotors) a mid air contact is brife at best, and realisticaly pose no real danger of harming the air craft. The FAA dose have a regulation that no PIC (pilot in command) shall not place a air craft in unsafe manuver that my possablely place air crew, passangers, and people and structures on the ground in any danger. most pilots would see the 100 mass of balloons and manuver around them to avoid collision.
    I my self turnd in a DPS helicopter pilot into the FAA for manuvering over a residetial neghbor hood to chase down balloons that broke loose from a birth day party and was manuvering in such a way as to suck them threw the main rotor system to pop them and repeated this unsafe flight manuver repeatedly, (long enough for me to catch it on video tape for FAA evedence) Granted, a thin film of rubber would never challange the metal on the helicopter and win, but what if it did by some chance, and is why the FAA FAR AIM 2010 FAA regulations book CRF #91.8 I belive, I'll have to look it up. has a law on this. The DPS officer had his flight certificet pulled by the FAA as a result of his unsafe manuvers and the Evidence I provided to th FAA.
    As for the green laser pointer, the effects it has on safe operations of a aircraft are mostly night time related, when the pilots eyes are the most sensitive to light exsposure,
    all aircraft have curved plexiglass windscreens more curved than any windshield on cars and trucks and have coatings to reduce glare so the beam line from the pointer enters the cockpit of the aircraft, being at along distance the beam has deverged from 1mm to 3 or 4 " in diameter by the time it has hit the windscreen, then is bounced around the cockpit inside because of the concave curves and the glare coatings and the instrument panel all covered in glass dial faces, An all glass cockpit is even more (meaning that all the instruments are basicaly computer screens) this intrusion of laser into the cockpit literaly lights up the inside of the cockpit and the chance for the pilot not to be hit in the eye "pupil" is nill compaired to being hit in the eye. Take for example the LUMINA EFFECTS you have been playing with put what you see on the wall and place that in the cockpit of a aircraft and see the pilot sitting in the middle of it and him having to do anti collision scans and insrument scans (moving his head from left to right up and down and then scanning his flight instuments every 5 to 8 sec's) Could you imagen being in flight and all of a sudden you see a green or red light out your perifral vision and turnig your head to see if an aircraft is about to collide into you just to be flashed and not to be able determin if it was an aircraft and hope your out the way and not knowing where to go to aviod the mid air collision, the panic that would go threw the mind of the pilot would be barely contianable, just by a little green laser pointer flash hit to the pilots eyes, wipes out your night vission and if you recover fast from the exsposure (30 minets) to have a green spot imprinted on your eyes retina that is now every where you look for another 15 -20 minets. Just let you know that all aircraft have anticollision and navagation lights positioned so that all other pilots can tell at night if the other aircraft is on comming or heading a way. COLORS are RED, GREEN, WHITE. Most helicopters fly in class G air space ( ground level to about 3000' AGL ( abouve ground level) mostly they fly at a altitude of 1500' to be in FAA regulations the exception to the rule is law enforcment aircraft flying alot lower for the police assistance they provide. dose this help your understanding?
    Last edited by beamann; 09-20-2010 at 10:53.
    BEAMANN (GODSLIGHT SHOWS)

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Posts
    231

    Default

    @beamann - Actually, this explanation DID help, thanks! I totally get it now.

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Phoenix,Az
    Posts
    285

    Default

    Most aircraft have turbine engines, some intrenal combustion engines but out of the two type engines aircfat use the turbine engine is the one that can suffer from F.O.D. (foriegn object damage) so they are MFG'ed to take a fair amount of objects threw the intake and into the compresser and combustion areas and are tested with frozen turkeys shot out of a air cannon at 150 miles per hour into the the full throttled turbine engine to prove to the FAA that they can take it and continue to work at their peak performance, even though they can take it, the FAA rugulations state that turbine driven aircfaft must be able to have a back up power plant thus they have two turbine engines each capable of powering the aircraft safely if one has a power failure If you could only see 100 balloons vers a live turkey much less a frozen one where would you put your money on a bet of out come?
    But for a case and point of "shit happens" look at the pilot of a heavy shortly after take off, flew into a flock of gease taking multiple hits to both turbin engines causing a toltal power plant failure in both turbin engines and had to land a passanger jet air linner on the Hudson, Thank God for super pilots with fantastic energey mangement skills and emergency proceedures homed to a fine tune.
    BEAMANN (GODSLIGHT SHOWS)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •