Unauthorized Laser Illumination Event

In article ,
Mxsmanic wrote:

the warlock society writes:

ok ill bite; why are you 'not sure you would have' marked the spot
with your GPS? Do I need to make a tinfoil hat before hearing your
answer?

Apart from the potential futility of doing so, there's also the danger that
you'd get zapped with the laser again.

The same thing happened about a year and a half ago to a friend of
mine's son, who was approaching Detroit at night, in an airliner
cockpit. He and his copilot came out OK, but the pilot of a following
plane had some eye damage.

According to the story, that incident happened over one of the densest
concentrations of Muslims near Detroit. I have no feedback on whether or
not they caught the perps, or even who they were.

It seems that they would have to have at least a telescopic sight on the
laser and have that mounted on a rifle stock, so they could get a
precision aiming.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Judah writes:

What altitude where you at?

I would bet that a kid with a handheld laser pointer might be very
difficult to catch and prosecute, and I bet even a handheld laser
pointer will create a flash in your eye at 2000 feet, even if the
beam has diffused enough that the "operator" won't be able to tell
for sure where it's hitting your plane...

If you're lucky, you will only see the diffused portion of the light,
and not the beam itself, which may damage your vision. It sounds like
the OP saw only the periphery, not the beam itself (which, as you
indicate, would be extremely difficult to aim with precision from the
ground, unless the culprit also had some sort of telescopic sight and
a way to hold the laser steady). The beam of a good quality laser
(highly collimated, that is) will hardly spread out at all over a
distance of a few thousand feet and thus may still be only a
millimetre or two in diameter.


So, you going to put a laser pointer on the edge of your monitor now?


Bertie

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Marco Leon writes:

I was at 1,700 feet. I used the Garmin 496 to mark the spot so it
conveniently took note of the time and altitude as well. Switching it
to the Automotive mode, I was able to narrow it down to a 6 block by
two block area in a specific neighborhood in Connecticut.

I'm not optimistic about finding the culprit.


Snort! To bad you';re nto there. You proly got all of Jessica Fletcher's
moves down pat.


There was definitely a flash and I lost my nightvision in the left
eye for a little while which was a weird feeling. It was kind of like
wearing glasses with a bug smudge on the left lense.

Did you see an ophthalmologist?


Why, did you?


Bertie

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

the warlock society writes:

ok ill bite; why are you 'not sure you would have' marked the spot
with your GPS? Do I need to make a tinfoil hat before hearing your
answer?

Apart from the potential futility of doing so, there's also the danger
that you'd get zapped with the laser again.



Fjukkwit.

Like you'd know what it's like.


Bertie

On Nov 13, 5:41 pm, Orval Fairbairn wrote:
In article ,

The same thing happened about a year and a half ago to a friend of
mine's son, who was approaching Detroit at night, in an airliner
cockpit. He and his copilot came out OK, but the pilot of a following
plane had some eye damage.

Eye damage would be so unlikely at 1000' from a laser pointer that I
doubt the veracity of this tale.

Cheers

On Nov 13, 3:42 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
The beam
of a good quality laser (highly collimated, that is) will hardly spread out at
all over a distance of a few thousand feet and thus may still be only a
millimetre or two in diameter.

Complete ********. Just buy a laser pointer and measure the spot size
after 50'. It's already cm wide. The cavity of laser diode is just
too short to produce such high degree of collimation...

Cheers

On Nov 13, 3:13 pm, "Marco Leon" wrote:

Damn, that's my home area.
Thank's for taking the time to try to pinpoint the SOB.
The next person to get blinded, either partially or fully,
might be ME.


C'mon let's have a reality check. Can you identify a single case of
actual vision damage at significant range from a laser pointer? Even
if all the light were collected by the eye and the eye were focused to
maximise energy delivery on the retina the energy of a laser pointer
is just too low to cause damage before the blink reflex protects the
eye. That's why they can be sold in stores... think about it!

Cheers

"Marco Leon" wrote in
:

Bradley Approach did inform me that there have been numerous laser
incidents in that area. The problem with commuters ans biz jets is that
although they pose the potential for the most damage from a severe
incident, they are the least likely to circle around and get a GPS
coordinate. Had I not been on a climb-out after a missed practoce
approach, I probably would not have circled either.

I don't want to minimize what you did... I think it's admirable.

In fact, just bringing it up on this group has created an awareness that has
even changed my cynical opinion. I still don't know if I would circle around
and hunt the guy down. But where before the thought probably would not have
crossed my mind, now I might consider it...

"Judah" wrote in message
. ..

I don't want to minimize what you did... I think it's admirable.

In fact, just bringing it up on this group has created an awareness that
has
even changed my cynical opinion. I still don't know if I would circle
around
and hunt the guy down. But where before the thought probably would not
have
crossed my mind, now I might consider it...

I wouldn't exactly call my actions "hunting down," it was just a matter of
getting a fix on his position for later use. I circled because I knew a fix
that far away was basically useless. I kept an eye on the guy's position
which was easy given the left hand turn. Fly over, hit enter twice on the
Garmin 496, then turn around on my way.

I reacted this way because it irked me that this was not an accidental
event. I'd be kicking myself for days if I did nothing. I'm glad you would
reconsider. If the guy actually got caught, just think of how satisfying it
would be.

Marco

"WingFlaps" wrote

Eye damage would be so unlikely at 1000' from a laser pointer that I
doubt the veracity of this tale.

You should do some googling, and see the milliwatt outputs some of these new
green lasers have. Look under "handheld green laser" and look around some.

I'm surprised that you could get away _without_ eye damage, if you did look
in the direction of one, or if it glanced off of a reflective surface.
--
Jim in NC