Lasers aren’t a grave threat to aircraft, but they are a safety concern. A high powered laser can cause eye damage to a pilot and possibly cause an accident due to the distraction happening at an inopportune moment (critical phase of flight path). Because most of it is an annoyance to air traffic and odds of taking down an aircraft is so slim, no terrorist would waste time with such nonsense.
Government regulation is necessary. If we don’t have it, we end up with a banana republic. Nobody in a first world nation wants that. But obviously, we need it balanced. Drone regulation is a whole other topic. It hasn’t been done quite right yet. Partly because the technology keeps changing. Drones from 3 years ago pale in comparison to the ones out today. It’s happening so fast. People are able to rig weapons to these things now. Civilian drones. They can drop incendiary devices. It’s… a tinder box.
I keep a light in the car capable of at least 5,000 lumens in the car which I use regularly for work and have used lights with three times the output when needed. I doubt that I am completely unique in this.
Wellp, people looooooove “regulation” ’til it’s their own ox getting gored.
I can just imagine… a waiting-period to get a Q8, in addition to the 3mos it takes to get one from overseas.
And “regulation” is often done as a knee-jerk (emphasis on “jerk”) reaction to something that hits the headlines and gets all blown out of proportion by The Media™ in order to lure readers/watchers. That’s why blurbs like, “10 things in your kitchen right now that can kill you!!” are such successful clickbait. (Yep, that kitchen sink! Fill it with water and stick your head in there… and you’ll die!)
Bah.
Can’t resist… When flashlights are outlawed, only outlaws will have flashlights.
Most advanced/developed nations have regulations/laws regarding publicly available lasers, etc. However, do you realise how difficult it is to point a moving hand held laser on the ground and actually manage to swipe it across a pilot's eyes? Sure, a multitude of variables apply, distance from, height, cockpit position, seat position in cockpit, the weather, the initial elevation of the laser itself, etc, the list is very long. I'll posit that it is virtually impossible to manage to accurately target a pilot's eyes. Indeed, in many circumstances, the case could be made that a really powerful flashlight could be much more of a danger.
Now, here's an interesting thing. Proposition: What does this say about a nation's psyche/state of mind? Small/smallish handheld lasers have a potential to cause death or injury that is so improbable as to be virtually non existant, which results in a raft of legislation outlawing certain types and heavily regulating the remainder. Number of deaths due to lasers? Don't know but suspect really, really low, like perhaps zero. Now juxtapose that with that same nation's stance/laws/regulations on firearms. The amount of laws and regulation regarding firearms seems to be proportionately less. The numbers of illegall firearm related deaths........don't know but a relatively high number. It seems that the law makers of that country have outlawed/over regulated the wrong items. This is just a casual observation - I'm not making an argument or creating a political stance.
[quote=Lightbringer]
Wellp, people looooooove “regulation” ’til it’s their own ox getting gored.
It’s a double edged sword sometimes. People can hate regulation until “not in my backyard” syndrome kicks in .
I remember something my 5th grade teacher told us: As a rule, mans a fool. When it’s hot, he wants it cool. When it’s cool, he wants it hot. Always wants it what it’s not.- Benjamin Disrarli
You’re joking, right? A hand thrown object has far less range than a drone that can go several football fields away from the controller. A drone with camera sight… is far more accurate too. But let’s drop this now, given where things seem to be going.
I don’t intentionally “collect” lights. I got into flashlights back in 2016 when I was caught out in the dark on a trail in the middle of nowhere with my dog and had to use my crappy phone flash to get back to the car. I ended up with an EDC light, throwier EDC light, headlamp, and dedicated thrower. If I was smart I would have stopped there, but I eventually discovered high CRI LEDs and got interested in modding, and I now have dozens and dozens of lights. I have a bad habit of buying up several of the same light just so I can try different LEDs and other mods, especially if they’re reasonably inexpensive (e.g. I have about 8 FW3As). I also go through a lot of lights with my modding work, so I sometimes find myself ordering a dozen of the same one at a time. I keep meaning to pare things down a little, but never seem to get around to it.
Me, I was always interested in lights, like if anyone remembers Rat Shack coupons for free flashlights (just keep buying the batteries, haha), and got my first MiniMag waaaaay back when.
The turning point to go all hardcore was reading about those people in the WTC who had to go down alllll those stairs in total darkness, except those who used their phones’ displays for minimal light.
Nuh-uh, not for me. Got and started collecting better and more useful lights after that.
Those River-Rock (Target house-brand) lights kicked some serious arse back then, too.
Haha! Oh no. Nevermind that a lesser amount could probably still do the job just as well, that doesn't figure at all in people's thinking. Oh no, more, more and yet more. Bigger is better therefore more must be best! Whatever you have to offer, I want/need more regardless of the task it may be required for! It's all to do with marketing. If the job can be done at 3000 lumens, 5000 lumens will do it better. A 10K lumen output would do it even better still, and so on.
In a word - NO, If that were adequate I have smaller, less bulky lights that I could carry. Just yesterday I ended up at a job site after dark and the 5,000 lumen light that I had with me was not enough for what I needed to do. I will probably start carrying one or two that can do 15,000+ when I might have to be on a job site after dark.
The need for more lumens in a work light is what originally lead to my discovery of this forum, of course I stayed for the hobby.
Really? OMG, how have I managed to survive for so long (42 years) without any torches at all and recently (add 13 years to the previous year figure) with only 4 of them?
I like you :) I had no idea what a "hyu-mon" was, so I googled it. Turns out Google doesn't know what a "hyu-mon" is either, so I guess they did go extinct after all
