A laser can be annoying up to 20KM, so this GT will be a lot less harmful.
Just don’t deliberately shine any high intensity visible light transmitter to a low level aircraft at night.
It can endager flight safety due to distraction and you will be prosecuted when caught. (Felony, up to 15 years imprisonment in NL)
It’s pretty high on the agenda and they actively try to reduce this new threat. Not what these lights are for, and we sure don’t want them banned due to misbehavior.
Nice progress on the build, but man it’s huge! :+1:
Edit
@ Enderman, in the link you provided, they state:
(Even) “Outside the Laser Free Zone, pilots may experience glare and distraction when a high intensity light beam is intentionally tracking the canopy of the aircraft. Distraction may also occur when the high intensity light is the only bright light source in its environment.”
They conclude “Intentionally tracking aircraft with a high intensity light, and especially with lasers, should be prohibited.”
When it’s unpleasant to flightcrew, it will distract so it’s dangerous and therefore illegal.
I don’t agree with you that it’s no problem at all.
Come down to close proximity of NAS Pensacola & track any of their inbound or outbound aircraft with anything much more powerful than an old school MagLight. They will do their best to hunt you down like a rabid dog.
And if they do catch you… you will experience a whole new meaning of right & wrong or legal & illegal.
“In normal use, broadband high intensity light sources pointing in navigable airspace, whether stationary or moving, cause no concern for aviation safety outside the [FAA’s] Laser Free Zone [around runways]”
“We conclude that there is no need to restrict broadband high intensity light sources pointing in navigable airspace anywhere outside the Laser Free Zone”
“At distances from 200 to 500 meters, the helicopter pilot ”never experienced any adverse effects of the light beams, and had no problems reading his instruments or viewing outside…. The pilot showed no signs of irritation and did not frown or look away or close his eyelids…. The amount of glare was minimal and had no effect on the ability of the pilot and experimenters to view the instruments in the cockpit and the outside world immediately surrounding the light source.“”
“The 3.5mW laser pointer had a very different effect: ”When hit by the laser pointer it was impossible for the observers to perceive details in the outside world”
Hi The Miller, I don’t know how I messed up
But just checked the list and I guess I haven’t begged yet to get onto the list,
So PLEASE can I get on a list or the list, got sort of confused on explanation of primary, secondary etc lists,
You can put me down for 4 lights please if this is possible.
Of course T18, the first should be doable to buy with not all actually buying, we’ll have to see for the other 3 and can’t promise even the first for it is after spot 555 already.
Thank You The Miller, I have sat back and read and read on this project thinking I was on the list, but guess not, so thank you very much my friend, just being on the list makes me happy so anywhere no problem, and whenever she is ready to go I will be here patiently waiting for years if need be, hey come to think of it, it better not be years I could be dead any day now, yikes, ha ha.
Wow there sure are a lot of interesting topics here other than just the GT Monster light … ha ha, Thanks again The Miller your the best…
Edit: By the way my qty request was just a thought, one is very good with me, and I recall your mention of the lights will still be in production after the GB so I can get the additional lights that way as well, no problem…
NP T18! right now it are DEL, Neal and TA doing the real work, before Tom with Narsil and Fritz and Thijsco with getting all the design things in, so I have to politely decline your “the best ” remark, for it is the others dong the best work
This is aimed to be a thrower, the XHP35hi has a smaller LEDdie making it better suited for that.
But just look at the LED placement in the reflector,amples space for swapping with a XHP70xx
Yes I am, and I read the original article as well TNO report
If you read my comment, I talk about low flying aircraft. The Laser Free Zone extends up to 2000ft around airports and up to that altitude high intensity lights are considered problematic. Even just outside the LFZ in certain cases, if they are being intentionally tracked.
However, the particular research is investigating the potential problem for high intensity lights on outdoor events or as attention-getter on comercial events(Wich are not aircraft tracking lights). In that case, they are not considered a threat outside LFZ.
They state: “We found that in normal use, broadband high intensity light sources pointing in navigable airspace, whether stationary or moving, cause no concern for aviation safety outside the Laser Free Zone. Intentional tracking of an aircraft with a high intensity light source may cause serious glare and distraction”
Common sense tells me, that it can be annoying to a police helicopter as well, even outside an airport location, if he is performing critical low level tasks. Your flashlight strobe can be very helpful in a search and rescue situation, but why would you want to attract attention when not in distress?
Ofcourse it’s no problem if you accidentally shine your light at an airliner at cruise altitude. (Maybe we get there once with the 3rd gen GT like flashlights :partying_face: )
Aparently it’s important to you to justify shining at low level aircraft just for fun…
I just hope most people here use their increasingly strong flashlights wisely.
It might not be very smooth but it isn’t very rough either. There is a ‘ring’ somewhere half way down that isn’t very shiny. Hope it’s just because it’s a first prototype.
I don’t shine lights at aircraft for fun.
I’ve had powerful flashlights pointed at me from a few km away because I wanted to see what it looked like from the receiving end, and it’s just a a bright dot, brighter than a street light but you can look at it no problem.
And that is several thousand times less powerful than a skybeam, so if a skybeam is not a problem then neither is a flashlight which produces moonlight brightness at 2km.
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The reason lasers are dangerous is because they refract in the glass making it impossible to see outside, and have hundreds of times higher intensity.
Any normal searchlight does not do that, as tested in the article.
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Point is, 1) it’s not illegal and 2) it’s not dangerous like a laser is, it’s just a brighter than usual dot on the ground.
Either way, you shouldn’t point it at any aircraft purposefully.
Wow! A 6 watt laser! In the USA one can’t even buy one over 5mW (in country that is - but the ’net makes for a very small world) . Yes, 6 watts would definitely be a problem.
It looks like they are using an XHP35 HD for the proto as well, so the beamshots should get even tighter when they switch to a HI version.
The reflector is not perfect but it is also a prototype aluminum mega large reflector. It looks to me like they simply raised the feed rate of the lathe to reduce costs for prototyping. That should be pretty easy to improve in the final version, although it is a question of cost, it will also cost more to make it smoother as well.
Would it be possible to make a removable pill for this light, so the emitter can be easily swapped for a IR or green color (or XHP70.2) for hunting purposes? Not without a mill I guess?
I really love that in the brinyte B158.
Man, that led looks small in the HUGE reflector :person_facepalming:
I really can’t think of any specific use for this enormous monster, but I don’t have anything remotely comparable so that alone makes it a viable buy… Maybe nice for spotting animals on a safari or something?
Does aybody have a good reason to justify the buy to the home front?
