How difficult is it to hover and then go straight up .... blind?

[twitchosx]

Hey guys.... quick question.

I was on another forum and somebody posted a video from Egypt of a helicopter flying around the riots and there were a ton of people in the crowd with green lasers "painting" the helicopter.

Heres the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljJF_Yit5Jw

The posters suggested he could have been blinded by the lasers.

I got into an argument with some of the posters because I suggested he just go straight up and turn a little and go away from the source even though the source may have been all around him, he was still a couple hundred feet up at the time.

The people I was talking to suggested if he was blinded by the lasers that he would have been screwed and crashed the helicopter.

Thoughts?

[Dash8driver1312]

Depending on distance from the source and the strength, you are talking about at best being dazzled and distracted to being permanently blinded.
The cockpit of an AH-64 is designed to give the crew excellent views outside, which by extension means excellent vision in.
For a helicopter to fly forward it must lower its nose at least slightly, thus increasing exposure in the forward sector.

So no, you don't have the right of it. There was a very real risk to that helicopter.

[hueyracer]

Just have a look into the "Lasers" Thread here in the rotary forum....

Lasers are a BIG hazard to pilots....it´s NOT fun....
:ugh:

[DirtDiver]

For the lazy people:
http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/320314-l-ser-searchlight-attacks-aircraft-incl-prison-sentences-offenders-13.html