On Wed, 16 Dec 2015 19:25:11 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Dec 2015 09:34:34 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 16 Dec 2015 07:22:17 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 20:36:35 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 19:37:03 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 12/15/2015 5:49 PM, John H. wrote:

At National Airport there is a park about 1000' from the north end of the main
runway. Folks lay there and watch the planes take off and land only a few hundred
feet over their heads. Do you not thing that's plenty close for a laser?


How many times have lasers interfered with an aircraft from that
location? Betcha not many, if at all. Too easy to locate and apprehend
them in a space with high aircraft traffic.

I was thinking the same thing. I doubt you could light a joint in that
park without being swarmed by the US park Police. They kept a pretty
close watch on that whole area, even before 9-11. There used to be 2
radio cars that didn't do anything but drive up and down that parkway
watching the parks as far back as the 60s.
(my reserve unit was over represented by the various police forces)
DC/metro is actually the most policed area in the US with a dizzying
number of different agencies with police forces. Most stay right there
in the federal area.

Actually, there aren't that many cops in the park during the day. The bicycle mounted
cops come through, but don't stay long. But the park is closed at night, IIRC. Always
had to get the boat in before sundown.

I haven't been there in decades but I think it used to be open at
night years ago or at least unenforced because we knew a guy with an
early cam corder, when they sat on your shoulder who had a movie he
made about planes and he had some night time shots from there.
It was on the wrong side of the river for me.
We were Haines Point people. ;-)

I always used to tell people to be ready to run if you were hanging
out in that park. If someone has a "departure stall", that may be
where they end up. The only one I really remember was Palm 90 and they
made a "non-stop flight from National Airport to the 14th street
bridge".
(the joke that got Howard Stern fired from WWDC)

I was working at a job in Bethesda and living in Lorton that day. Snowing like hell.
We got let out of work at 1:00pm. I got home at 9:00pm. What a mess that day was. We
also had a subway derail (or breakdown somehow), and a dump truck go off a bridge.
But the airplane got the big news, naturally. From then on we had a 'bridge watch'
anytime we went over the 14th St Bridge.

I went through there right before the crash, going home from work and
it was on TV when I got home.