Some people have no sense of morality...

[Brad]

You may think it's "cool" to shine lasers at aircraft, or that it "keeps the gub'ment from spying on me!", but that's all bull! It's stupid, inconsiderate, and puts the aircrew and passengers in danger of their lives!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMIYDT-_7lY#ws

[DJN245]

Has this happened to CAP pilots that we know of?
Also, I highly doubt that this is to prevalent within CAP, I think most of our members are not this dumb, you have to be a special kind of stupid to do something like that...

[a2capt]

Never say never.. or imply anything to be likened with it.

[Stonewall]

Could be worse...  Locally, on New Year's Eve, this pilot was shot while flying over the city.

Story here.

[Brad]

I was linked to this video by our Wing Operations Officer, who is also the Chief Pilot at the FBO at my local airport. He received it from the Coast Guard Auxiliary, they advised that laserings are reportedly on the rise in Myrtle Beach. In fact, last August our Coast Guard Sector here in Charleston, which operates coastal SAR all the way up to Myrtle Beach, was threatening to limit operations because of the large amounts of laser strikes in the Myrtle Beach area. (If you've ever been to Myrtle Beach you know it's nothing but drunk college kids at night) In fact there was a SAR aircraft lasered during an operation.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/08/04/3431435/coast-guard-threatens-to-limit.html

So Horry County enacted a law that makes the pointers illegal for anyone under 18, and limits the strength to 1 mW.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/01/09/3263416/pilots-not-out-of-danger-in-horry.html

[rframe]

I know several pilots who've been "lazed".  Their experiences have ranged from being temporarily blinded to just experiencing the bright green light or flashes in the cockpit.  Any time you experience it be sure to report the event to ATC with the most accurate source location you can provide.  Often these jerks are repeat offenders and many have been caught.

[Al Sayre]

Has this happened to CAP pilots that we know of?
Also, I highly doubt that this is to prevalent within CAP, I think most of our members are not this dumb, you have to be a special kind of stupid to do something like that...

Yes, we've had a couple of incidents in MS both CAP and USAF aircraft near Keesler AFB.

[a2capt]

I'm waiting for the day that they fool around with some armed aircraft and it happens to result in .. ooops.

[PHall]

I'm waiting for the day that they fool around with some armed aircraft and it happens to result in .. ooops.

Kinda hard to target somebody when you can't even see your cockpit displays.

[a2capt]

Gee-whiz-bang electronics don't need to see .. "get the source of the light. Now."

[Flying Pig]

Ive been lazed 4 times.  All with green lasers. 1x in an airplane and 3 in a helicopter. Pretty wild. Fortunately the NVGs can protect your eyes. Never happened as a CAP pilot though.

[Майор Хаткевич]

Why green?

[SarDragon]

The green ones seem to have the highest power and greatest range.

[Майор Хаткевич]

So do people get them just for this? I only see red on sale, so this isn't spontaneous.

[Thrashed]

I've been hit twice on approach. LAS & EWR

[SarDragon]

So do people get them just for this? I only see red on sale, so this isn't spontaneous.

They are expensive, too. A 20 mw green unit costs $229.

[DJN245]

Why green?

simply put, green is the color easiest seen by the human eye, making green lasers appear brighter.

More technically - "The sensitivity of the dark-adapted human eye is greatest at about 507 nm, a bluish-green color, while the light-adapted eye is most sensitive about 555 nm, a yellowish-green color" (meaning that in the dark, blue green is the brightest to us, and in bright light yellow-green is the brightest color to the human eye)

[JoeTomasone]

So do people get them just for this? I only see red on sale, so this isn't spontaneous.

They are expensive, too. A 20 mw green unit costs $229.

Not true; there are many sites selling more powerful lasers for much cheaper prices.   A quick Google search will find them rapidly.

I have a few lasers, and they DO have legitimate uses, ranging from experimentation to stargazing.  However, like most anything else, responsible use is key. 

On the CAP side, I have used one while on a night UDF mission to signal our location to a CAP aircraft that was trying to guide us in to a target location.   The crew could not see my high beams or rotating yellow light, but they did see the laser.   Yes, I pointed it straight up (not at the aircraft!), and yes, I did check to ensure that there were no aircraft anywhere near where I pointed it.