Requesting woman with torchlight rake as unit in combined arms

Real world example:

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/03/04/ncis-suspect-targeted-navy-jets-by-attaching-flashlights-to-garden-rake/

Blinded by the light!

In seriousness, this may be an actual thing if CA let's you control the WW2 Searchlights manually ... and it would need to be coded so the AI responds with retreat or lessened accuracy.

BTW: You should have put this in Chit-Chat.

its amazing how simplest red neck tech can disrup the operation of a multimillion dollar plane LOL

Is there a Bat Sh*t Crazy Woman Mod?

its amazing how simplest red neck tech can disrup the operation of a multimillion dollar plane LOL

+1

The Navy should be outright embarrassed that a simple flashlight could cause such interference. The article seems to go back and forth between "flashlight" and "laser"... laser I can get, but flashlight? How many lumens is that bad boy!?

Is there a Bat Sh*t Crazy Woman Mod?

I'd spend $20 on that. Also, if you take too long to start up she'll start running at you with the rake and trying to smash your plane with it.

+1

 

The Navy should be outright embarrassed that a simple flashlight could cause such interference. The article seems to go back and forth between "flashlight" and "laser"... laser I can get, but flashlight? How many lumens is that bad boy!?

Here's the thing: at night, you can't tell the difference between the ocean and the sky. The whitecaps look like stars and vice versa. It's disorienting as hell, to say the least. It's why we train in that environment.

While Fentress isn't as bad as a black ocean, it's not like landing near downtown either. The field used for FCLP isn't lit up like a Christmas tree because 1) too much light would ruin night vision and 2) it simulates the carrier (which observes light discipline to prevent visual detection). Approaching the 90 at 400 feet in a bank and having someone deliberately try to disorient you with a light is unsettling at best and outright dangerous most of the time. Note that the Navy didn't lose any jets or cause any mishaps due to this (the pilots are very good), but the job is dangerous enough without having some crazy hag trying to kill us on final to boot.

OBTW, lasers are very nasty. We used to fly with "laser goggles" when we would do low passes on ships of certain foreign nations.

That adds more color to the situation, I kinda get it but, IRL pilot as well (PPL) and can't imagine some basket case bothering me with a flashlight in their backyard unless they were standing on the threshold, which is why I asked how many lumens that bad boy of a flashlight is. Shine a typical flashlight on a surface 100ft away it's pretty diminishing returns. I guess a backyard BBQ dance with a strobe light and kids with glowsticks are a local bylaw in the surrounding region as well?? I'm sorry but, the more I read this story, I can't get the meme "Knock knock mother....r, freedom is here" out of my head. The money spent on prosecuting and incarcerating an old lady with a flashlight. Are the Americans that short on real estate that it's not just the wildlife being displaced? The real crime here is poor zoning.

I honestly don't know. Fentress is rural, so there's no point in "zoning", i.e. no point in designating surrounding land for non-use because somebody might get ticked. There are plenty of houses near the NAS Oceana runway thresholds, and you don't get crazies going to their rooftops to lase incoming birds there.

Loud jets have been around since turbojets of the 1950s (louder than the turbofans we have now), but I figure that people may have been spoiled when Oceana was mainly a Tomcat base. Some people around Fentress were lauding the retirement of the tomcat thinking that the hornet (being smaller) would be quieter. Not so -- the hornet has a much lower bypass on its turbofan than the tomcat, and is noticeably louder!

I figure most people living in the area accept it with the territory, or those who toured the house to buy did so in the daytime. Then you have the people who are perpetually angry at everything.

EDIT: Regarding whether anybody noticed or whether it was a big deal, I'm sure it was a big enough deal if the pilot (or WSO) called it over the radio or mentioned it in debrief. In the macho, show-no-weakness culture of a ready room, a "snowflake" move of calling in an innocuous old lady with a flashlight would likely earn somebody a new callsign (heck, "Snowflake" could even become the callsign). Military aviators are safety-conscious to a person because the job is dangerous enough without giving Uncle Murphy a head-start, so if this was called in it was a legitimate safety concern.

This also differs from a BBQ in the backyard with two major factors: 1) the backyard party is a "normal" source of light (house lighting, backyard, and a notable landmark in the pattern), and 2) the big difference between a backyard party and a light is the malicious attempt to disorient and potentially kill the aircrew. They weren't just arresting some crazy bat with a broom - they were also deterring others from endangering aircrews that just want to get home to their families.

its amazing how simplest red neck tech can disrup the operation of a multimillion dollar plane LOL

Indeed. Some time ago, here in Belgium, a number of people thought it to be a pretty good idea to aim laser pointers (the ones used for giving presentations) at both civilian airliners and our Air Force's F-16s...

It became such a problem that it made national headlines for a while.

In the past at RAF Lakenheath there were incidents of people lasing jets on final from Brandon or mildenhall village. It would usually immediately get called on the radio to tower, and tower would dispatch the local authorities to go and find (and usually arrest) the perpetrator. It can cause permanent eye damage, not to mention the risk of damage to the aircraft/surrounding area if a crash or a landing were porked. USAF/RAF MoD treats that stuff super seriously. I don’t think any USAF (At least in my squadron) aircrew would be hesitant about calling out suspected lasing, its something you cant control that can end your flying career or kill you...

The canopy can act like a giant combining glass and amplify the effects of the laser, it also is not a single point, it can turn into a glow as it refracts and reflects around the canopy, glaring out a significant part of your vision.

In the past at RAF Lakenheath there were incidents of people lasing jets on final from Brandon or mildenhall village. It would usually immediately get called on the radio to tower, and tower would dispatch the local authorities to go and find (and usually arrest) the perpetrator. It can cause permanent eye damage, not to mention the risk of damage to the aircraft/surrounding area if a crash or a landing were porked. USAF/RAF MoD treats that stuff super seriously. I don’t think any USAF (At least in my squadron) aircrew would be hesitant about calling out suspected lasing, its something you cant control that can end your flying career or kill you...

 

The canopy can act like a giant combining glass and amplify the effects of the laser, it also is not a single point, it can turn into a glow as it refracts and reflects around the canopy, glaring out a significant part of your vision.

I suggest a new type of small bomb ..

make it .. laser guided