And now it is grounded.
City staff thought a drone would take Sioux Falls parks and construction projects to new heights, but plans have been put on hold until the federal government issues new rules for the devices.
The city of Sioux Falls purchased a $1,200 drone this summer.
While the stories have been circulating around the country and the region that the FAA is grounding these devices all over the country until they can devise some rules for their usage, apparently no one at the city’s central services office thought to do a little research before purchasing one.
When I saw they were using it in CityLink shows, I wondered how long before the FAA would ground the device. It’s one thing that the city is using tax dollars to purchase a toy, it is another thing that they didn’t do a little research on whether they were legal before buying it and using it. They just couldn’t wait to take video of the Events Center with their new tax payer funded ‘toy’.
Hopefully the FAA rules will be specific about their usage, I can just see SF Code Enforcement using the drones to snap pictures of people’s fenced in yards, if they haven’t already.