^I just moved to a new apartment that's about 200 yards off the the side of the runway/approach, and about even with the very 1st runway indicator lights at my city's airport. So of course, being this close as to be able to see the planes and such, I've been watching them all the time.
After all my watching, I'm come to the conclusion that from my bedroom window, I could put a beam on the cockpit window of 90% of the planes that land at this airport inside of the last minute before landing. The angles just really aren't that bad. As far as the banking goes, even the commercial planes make a hard bank as they're coming in, and it's pretty much always within the last few minutes before landing I think, and many of the private planes will be on a hard bank, 45degrees or more, in the last minute before touchdown.
After watching lots of planes here, I really don't think it would be that hard at all to be able to hit the cockpit window and distract the pilot, or give them some momentary flash blindness in the last minute before landing. So it just confirms to me even more that pointing a laser at an airplane is something that should never, ever be done.