Laser Warnings Planned for Out-of-Bounds Pilots 258
akadruid writes "No, it's not a new 'Star Wars' system: The US Pentagon and NORAD are using lasers to warn off pilots flying into restricted airspace, according to Wired magazine. I wonder if they got the idea from the FBI, who charged a New Jersey man under anti-terror laws for doing this?" The system is not yet in operation (but could be as soon as next month), and according to NORAD, their system has been found safe for pilots' eyes.
Equipped laser test (Score:2, Informative)
Good "test" of how effective lasers were to blind pilots is at Equipped.com [equipped.com].
(First post!!!)
Article from Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assoc. (Score:5, Informative)
for more information.
Re:I still don't understand (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Please, for the love of God... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Two in one! (Score:3, Informative)
This guy [afa.org] was the F-15E pilot.
Re:Why note encode data in the signal (Score:5, Informative)
If the pilot has a radio in his plane, and he has turned it on, on what frequency would you call him?
Re:Why note encode data in the signal (Score:2, Informative)
Re:This could be part of a more integerated defens (Score:3, Informative)
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Clickable link (Score:1, Informative)
No karma for me, thanks. -MisterLawyer
Re:Why note encode data in the signal (Score:3, Informative)
You're SUPPOSED to be listening on 121.5, though that doesn't have the force of law (yet).
The FAA stongly encourages all pilots to listen to 121.5 at all times unless there is a reason not to be, as in your description of aircraft without electrical systems. They would even like you to be listening to 121.5 even when communicating with ATC on another frequency. Most aviation audio panels support this if there are two recievers.
Keep in mind, the restricted area around D.C. lies well within the 30nm mode C "veil" around the major airports. What that means is, in order to be even NEAR the restricted area around D.C., you've got to have an altitude encoding transponder, and it has to be on. So any aircraft likely to accidentally penetrate the restricted area will have an electrical system. I doubt there's too many airplanes out there with transponders and no radios.
Airspace no-go rules (Score:2, Informative)
Further to the above info, there are a number of different types of airspace that you should stay away from.
In Australia, outside of the normal classes A-G of airspace we have Prohibited, Restricted and Danger areas.
Basically, Prohibited means stay away, we don't care who you are, go away! I think the last Prohibited area was around Woomera, but was downgraded to a Restricted area.
Restricted areas can be active 24 hours, or activated at various times. Most military flying bases will have associated restricted training areas. Weapon ranges and military exercise areas also tend to have restricted areas as well - notified by NOTAM. If the restricted area is not for you, or you do not have specific permission from those who created it, then stay away!
Danger areas are sections of airspace that you should be careful when flying through, due to things such as gliders, mining explosive blasts, remote control aircraft, etc. If you have no good reason to be there, then don't go there. There is nothing stopping you from being there, but you probably should avoid it if you can.
When flying near international borders, ADIZ (Air Defence Zones) boundaries can cause a problem, particularly if you will get shot down for accidentally intruding, and should be treated as Prohibited areas unless you have specific approval to be there.
Re:Why note encode data in the signal (Score:3, Informative)
There have been miscommunication cases in the past where aircraft have been talking and following Air Traffic Control (Potomac Approach) instructions --but for whatever reason, NORAD didn't know the aircraft was supposed to be there. The result is often an intercept.
The pilots of the aircraft think they're doing OK. Then a blackhawk helicopter (callsign "Huntress") or an F-16 shows up on their wing. THEN they'll tune in 121.5. The laser system may be cheaper to run...
My airplane is based at Tipton airport (Fort Meade). It's well inside the "ADIZ". I'm used to it. For a pilot from out of town, this airpspace is very different from what they're used to. The ADIZ procedures themselves are actually different from the other ADIZ airspaces off the coast of the US.
So yes, some snide idiots out there say "read the NOTAM" and study the charts. This NOTAM might as well have been written in Navaho code talker language as far as most out of town pilots are concerned. It's also buried deep in the middle of a bunch of other NOTAMS such as volcano activity in Alaska and international flight considerations.
Furthermore, the chart symbols are a bit unusual. I'll bet you could find a lot of pilots who might not know every chart symbol on their sectionals. Mind you, I'm not making excuses for them, they should know. But this sort of stuff is often overlooked.
A pilot of a Cessna 172 fresh out of Arkansas, with perhaps an old pair of KX-170B radios, may not be up on all of this stuff. Yes, he should be, but it's not part of the standard training most pilots receive.
Furthermore, the FRZ inside the ADIZ is not easy to identify with common navigation instruments. Even an instrument rated pilot might miss the NOTAM marking the GPS RWY 10 approach as NA. Naturally, that approach is based upon Intersection BELTS and it's just inside the FRZ.
Good luck figuring that out on the L-28 instrument chart. The FRZ is not charted there.
By the way, the FRZ is not based upon any common navigational beacons. It's not even in some GPS database cards. Believe me, it's easy to make this mistake.
So before you start calling a bunch of out of town pilots dumbshits, why don't you try wading through this stuff and see how far you get...
Re:Why note encode data in the signal (Score:3, Informative)
100% wrong. I'm a private pilot and am red-green colourblind. I am extremely qualified to speak about this topic.
When I went for my glider pilot's license, I took the "colour plate test", where they show you a book of 15 pictures with coloured bubbles, and you have to tell them what number you see. I got 2 correct out of 15 and was diagnosed as red-green colourblind. However, I was still allowed to have a pilot license, although being colour blind meant I had the following restrictions on my license: "Daytime VFR only in single-engined, land-based, non-high performance aircraft with a two-way radio."
I was determined to get these restrictions listed, so I took the "colour lantern" test, where they sit you down in a chair at one end of a room, and flash a series of 3 different colour lights at you (red, green, and white) through a pinhole in a box at the other end of the room. First they do the test with the lights in the room on, then they turn off the lights and do the test again to simulate nighttime. I failed the test.
However, I didn't have my glasses with me when I took the test the first time. So I convinced them to let me take the test again. I failed again.
The idea with colour blindness and flying is that if you're flying into an airport and your radio fails, the way they tell you whether or not it is safe to land is by flashing red and green lights at you from the control tower. These are no lasers, just regular, bright lights about the size of a radar gun a cop would use. Big flashlights.
So continuing on with my story, these other tests were really just to estimate whether or not I'd be able to differentiate the lights the control tower would be flashing at me. So the next logical test was to take me up in an airplane, and have the tower actually flash the lights at me to see if I could tell which was which. I failed.
Finally, I heard about another test I could try, called the Farnsworth D-15 color test [guldenindustries.com]. It's a long box with a bunch of bottle-cap-sized wooden plugs with coloured dots on one side and a number on the other. The doctor administering the test shows me what the plugs all look like in order, then dumps them on the desk and mixes them up. Then, he puts in the first plug, and I had to put in the rest, in order, going by the "next closest color" to the preceding one. I performed the task, they closed the lid, flipped the box over and opened the other side to see if the numbers were in order.
They were. I passed! So the restriction was removed from my license, and I am no longer considered "colour blind" as far as the civil aviation authority is concerned.
But my point was that even when I was considered colour blind, I was still allowed to be a pilot. It is not illegal to be a pilot if you're colour blind. You just have several restrictions on your license (dayting, VFR only, in single-engine, land-based aircraft with two-way radio).
Re:Why note encode data in the signal (Score:3, Informative)
It's funny that you chose to highlight an extremely unlikely situation (that off all radios failing in an aircraft [yes, aircraft have multiple radios]), rather than raising the far more likely scenario of the numerous traffic stoplights I face during my daily commute.
I can see stoplights just fine, by the way.