Who's done a NOTAM at Burning Man?

[phil]

Anybody here or know someone I can contact?

For information, I'm getting some help from Dean Siracusa at the airport group. He's pointed me to that FAA website. Turns out there are two issues. One is the FAA if the laser is pointed up, but the other is the FDA if the laser is pointed out.

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dailys ... 1-vol1.pdf
points to a filled-in sample form for FDA approval for a laser light show.
http://www.fedforms.gov/bgfPortal/docDe ... o?dId=3428
allows you to download the form only.

If the laser could hit aircraft, you'll have to notify the FAA with this form:
http://forms.faa.gov/forms/faa7140-%201.pdf
and work with them to resolve any objections they have.

My hope would be that someone has done that and can give me a heads up on what the objections are and how to resolve them.

If I read the forms right, and that's a big if, a 5 milliwatt laser doesn't require approval. My problem is having some bully with a badge and a gun show up and haul me off to jail in the hinterlands of Nevada because I'm shining a 5 milliwatt laser into the night sky. Having a permit from the federal government on paper would give me some comfort. I have no confidence whatsoever that the police have a clue about permissible lasers.

[BAS]

Yeah, having a permit certainly couldn't hurt. Showing one to a local officer might make them back off, since it means you might bring in the feds.

[Bob]

Part of me hopes you'd get hauled off and beaten with a 12 inch glow stick for shining lasers in the airspace.

The other part of me hopes your mission will encourage fifty thousand other urban campers to shine lasers in the airspace, because there'd be nothing quite as sublimely stupid as fifty thousand urban campers trying to orientate toward their camps via fifty thousand-odd lasers pointed at the sky.

[BAS]

Actually, when I went in 2006, I had no trouble at all finding my camp after the Man burned. (Then again, I watched him burn from the Esplanade, not wanting to deal with the crush of people who were up close. Maybe, if I ever get to go again, I will feel more adventuresome and get thoroughly lost. One can only hope.)

[phil]

> I had no trouble at all finding my camp after the Man burned.

The Man burned in 2010 in a whiteout, and finding our way from the playa to our exact street was easy with our GPS. But thousands of others were wandering lost in the dust. Which is totally fine. They were happy, I was happy.

You can always find your way if you're sober and not in a whiteout, but guideposts make it a _lot_ easier. No everyone wants or needs to get back promptly, but some of us may for whatever reasons.

Louise and I have been in whiteouts before, trying to find out way back at night after all the street signs have been stolen. It's either an adventure or an aggravation depending on the circumstances. Thanks to Sic Pup, we can try to navigate by JOTS, but we're not always coming from the playa after we volunteer for PG&E, for example, so we don't know where the JOTS are. When you're lost, you're really lost.

[Tiahaar]

there'd be nothing quite as sublimely stupid as fifty thousand urban campers trying to orientate toward their camps via fifty thousand-odd lasers pointed at the sky.

**snicker!**

I got mildly groused at (from non-camp-members) last year for Not putting up my really sparkly tall LED beacon...camp 'issues' came up and I just said screw it...I can find my own way if no-one wants to help. Had no idea so many campers in the neighborhood from past years watched for the thing.

[BAS]

Ya know, fifty thousand lasers pointed sky-ward would actually look pretty cool... expensive to make happen, but...

Hmm. Maybe I could get a grant from someone if I told them I was trying to contact the Mother Ship or something...?

[Bob]

Even better -- a sound beacon looping Grateful Dead greatest hits from a thirty foot lava lamp.

No Notice to Hippies required, they'll find you.

[C.f.M.]

Ive seen a poster advocating checking for NOTAM's in the mens restroom of the club house at the local airport. Don't know what it is either.

Naughty Orgasm Time, Administered Manually

well, someone was going to do it!

If you have to go by a manual, you're not doing it right...

[phil]

> Had no idea so many campers in the neighborhood from past years
> watched for the thing.

Yeah, we had people wanting us to use our blue runway flashing light all night on Sat, Sun, and Mon, but we just don't have the battery power to last even one night.

Having a beacon is very convenient after all the street signs are gone and people have left.