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U.S. DOT Launches Laser Illumination Reporting
Unloaded writes "The
U.S. Department of Transportation announced a
new laser warning and reporting system for pilots . The
FAA has it's own guidelines for reporting laser illumination." This is a follow up on stories reported earlier.
More a matter of strength- 100mw lasers have only gotten cheap in the last couple of months, most laser pointers are only 5mw and would be far too dim to do any damage (as it is, your average 5mw laser has to be held on the pupil for 30 seconds to do any damage. I don't know about you, but my hands shake too much to hold on a stationary target that small at 100 feet, let alone a pilot's eyeball on a jetliner moving past me at 100 MPH).
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
These would not even be visible.
At no point does the FAA, the U.S. DOT, or the poster specify the power output, and yes, I read both before before I posted (and before the story was posted). In addition, you expect the assialant to keep a 100+mW laser on target for a significant length of time when....
Minimum Distance from Source : 500m [50,000cm](~5 seconds from impact)
Pupil Size : 1cm
Tan(Theta)=Opp/Adj
Theta=arcTan(Opp/Adj)
Theta=arcTan(1/50000)=arcTan(0.00002)
=~0.00114592 Degrees
If both the plain and the laser were absolutly still, the laser would have to be pointed with an angular precision of 0.0011 degrees. You think you can hold your hand steady to that precision? And keep it there for long enough to be a problem?? and without you or the plane moving by more than a cm???
Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
But the human eyes have 2x more green receptors than of the other colors, and are therefore lots more sensitive to green.
Not saying laser filters are a superb idea, but anyway.
I know I can't- but the guy in the OTHER story who got arrested apparently was able to target the initial jetliner for 5 seconds and the subsequent helicopter for 10. In NEITHER account was anybody blinded though- as that would take a good deal more time. I was making an assumption that the new US DOT regulations were coming at this time (as opposed to long before now) due to the recent rash of events reported.
I'm STILL skeptical on two of the events reported- at ~10,000 m from the ground, I would think that the events over Colorado and Oregon would HAVE to be either plane-to-plane, or completely accidental discharge of an industrial laser.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
For those who keep saying "this isn't a big deal," or complaining about how infeasible this is, perhaps it would help to read about what actual pilots think?
Professional Pilots Rumour Network: Professional Laser injures Delta pilot's eye thread.
It's "no one," not "noone." Who the hell is noone anyway?