The General
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As Washington State celebrates its one year ganja-versary of legalized weed with a huge public smoke-in beneath the Space Needle today, the Forest Service is feeling the kind of heat once rationed out to illicit tokers. The public is lighting them up for spending $100 grand on some marijuana-grower tracking drones that have sat in cold storage since their purchase way back in 2007.
Taking a page from the other team's stereotypical playbook, the Forest Service spaced on checking to see if they were actually allowed to use the heavily-regulated unmanned aircraft until after they dropped the dough, and guardian of all things U.S. airspace / super harsh dudes the Federal Aviation Administration said, "bummer, but no deal, dude." Turns out that the FAA is unwavering about their strict rules even for their buds when it comes to flying unmanned aircraft beyond line-of-sight, which isn't actually very far when you're in the woods.
Even if the FAA had been lenient, there was another small issue -- not enough of the woodsy folks in the Forest Service were actually qualified to fly the damn things. Apparently you need two trained operators to pilot each drone, and the few who could operate 'em were spread out across multiple offices, or tree forts, or whatever the Forest Service resides in.
They may be in luck soon -- the FAA has a congressional imperative to come up with some "let's all get along" rules involving drones and commercial airlines by September 2015. After that fateful day we may soon find ourselves ducking and covering as a buzzing wave of delivery drones take to the skies, providing a little traffic to negotiate for the potentially then-legal couple of weed-seeking aircraft as they seek to save us from the evils of reefer. Although by then their robot planes will be eight years old, and the Volkswagen bus equivalent of a high tech tool. Maybe they can get the suddenly ducking and covering alcohol lobbyists to fund a new fleet in the hopes it helps them defend their stranglehold on legal U.S. vices? Of course, the ways the ball seems to be rolling prohibition-wise, with state after state introducing legalization initiatives, by then it may be a moot point entirely.
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Esquire.com
Author: James Joiner
Contact: Esquire - Beautiful Women, Men's Fashion, Best Music, Drink Recipes
Website: The National Forest Service Bought Weed-Tracking Drones -- And Can't Even Use Them - Esquire
Taking a page from the other team's stereotypical playbook, the Forest Service spaced on checking to see if they were actually allowed to use the heavily-regulated unmanned aircraft until after they dropped the dough, and guardian of all things U.S. airspace / super harsh dudes the Federal Aviation Administration said, "bummer, but no deal, dude." Turns out that the FAA is unwavering about their strict rules even for their buds when it comes to flying unmanned aircraft beyond line-of-sight, which isn't actually very far when you're in the woods.
Even if the FAA had been lenient, there was another small issue -- not enough of the woodsy folks in the Forest Service were actually qualified to fly the damn things. Apparently you need two trained operators to pilot each drone, and the few who could operate 'em were spread out across multiple offices, or tree forts, or whatever the Forest Service resides in.
They may be in luck soon -- the FAA has a congressional imperative to come up with some "let's all get along" rules involving drones and commercial airlines by September 2015. After that fateful day we may soon find ourselves ducking and covering as a buzzing wave of delivery drones take to the skies, providing a little traffic to negotiate for the potentially then-legal couple of weed-seeking aircraft as they seek to save us from the evils of reefer. Although by then their robot planes will be eight years old, and the Volkswagen bus equivalent of a high tech tool. Maybe they can get the suddenly ducking and covering alcohol lobbyists to fund a new fleet in the hopes it helps them defend their stranglehold on legal U.S. vices? Of course, the ways the ball seems to be rolling prohibition-wise, with state after state introducing legalization initiatives, by then it may be a moot point entirely.
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Esquire.com
Author: James Joiner
Contact: Esquire - Beautiful Women, Men's Fashion, Best Music, Drink Recipes
Website: The National Forest Service Bought Weed-Tracking Drones -- And Can't Even Use Them - Esquire
