Posted on 05/01/2010 10:38:37 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Learning to fly is hard, learning to fly a military aircraft is even harder.
And learning to fly a military aircraft at night is hardest of all.
Because of the fact many combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan are flown after dark, more emphasis has been placed in recent years on training military student pilots to fly at night.
As a result, every three weeks the men and women earning their wings at Vance Air Force Base do their flying after the sun goes down. The next night flying week at Vance is scheduled to begin Monday.
During a recent night flying week, the difficult and dangerous business of learning to fly at night was made even more difficult and dangerous when three Vance aircraft were the targets of a concentrated beam of green laser light, either from a laser pointer or a laser rifle scope.
All three aircraft, a T-6A Texan II and two T-38s, landed safely, but all six pilots had to report to the Vance Clinic for precautionary eye exams. All were cleared by flight surgeons.
“They were on final turns to come into the base,” said Bob Farrell, Vance’s chief of community relations. “That’s a very critical phase of flight.”
The aircraft were flying at an altitude about 1,000 feet when their canopies were illuminated by lasers.
“Unfortunately, they were in the worst spot possible when this happened,” said Lt. Col. Ted Weibel, Vance’s chief of safety. “The critical phase of flight, absolutely, is the last 1,000 feet coming in and landing. That’s when the pilots need their eyes the most.”
(Excerpt) Read more at enidnews.com ...
Tom Clancy was prescient...
Ping.
I hope that they are aprehending these people who shine lasers in pilots eyes.
Funny. That's what I say when I run into liberals who call Bush stupid.
Tom Clancy FOR prescient!
Series, however, his book had a super high intensity focused strobe flash take down an airliner, not a laser, as I recall.
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