COTC - 18 Dec 2025 - Medical Drone Deliveries

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Good morning, Northern Michigan. This is Mike, and

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this is Cup of Traverse City for the

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12/18/2025.

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So, today, we got some weird weather for

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at least least for December 18.

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Showers with a high near 44.

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South wind around 15 miles an hour. Gust

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as high as 30 miles an hour. Chance

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precipitation is 100%.

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New precipitation amounts between a tenth and a

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quarter inch possible, and that's gonna be rain.

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Tonight, rain showers before 10PM, and the rain

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and snow showers between ten and eleven.

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And then snow showers after eleven,

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low around eighteen, breezy with a southwest wind

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of 15 to 20 miles per hour becoming

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northwest after midnight.

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Winds could gust as high as 40 miles

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an hour. Chance precipitation is 90%. Newest snow,

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new snow accumulations around an inch possible. So

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not terrible but here's the problem, all that

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rain and wet roads and wet everything

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and when the temperatures

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dip we're gonna get a little ice accumulation

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I would think,

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that that's my guess, not, what the forecast

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says.

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And then tomorrow, snow showers mainly before 1PM,

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patchy blowing snow before

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noon,

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steady temperatures around twenty one. Blustery.

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That's a word you don't see in the

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forecast a lot with a northwest wind of

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15 to 20 miles an hour decreasing to

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10 to 15

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in the afternoon.

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Winds could gust as high as 45.

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Wow. It's not good flying weather.

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New snow accumulation around two inches.

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I was, looking out my window this morning

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and

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saw my, y'all o meter. That's a, snow

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gauge,

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and,

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it's

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open ground underneath my meter. There's still some

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snow on the ground, obviously, but,

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where I've got that meter set up, it's

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down to zero. So,

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it was up to, like, five or six.

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So,

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it is what it is. No big deal.

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And speaking of flying,

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Traverse City,

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over

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the

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oh, Munson Hospital, actually,

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was

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was experimenting

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back in May with don't drone deliveries

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of, lab

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samples and and stuff like that,

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you know, just within a mile of Munson

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Medical Center.

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It's a pilot program,

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through

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Central Michigan University's Rural Health Excellence Institute and

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the Traverse Connect,

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and they partnered with

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a company called blue

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Blue Flight and

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another company called Drone Up to complete the

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region's first medical

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drone delivery project.

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So that was within a mile of

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Munson Medical Center.

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And, yeah, it's, funded by Michigan's Advanced Air

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Mobility

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Activation

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Fund. The team conducted nearly 70 test flights

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in May using drones to transport patient lab

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samples within one mile radius of Munson Medical

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Center. Officials say the technology could speed up

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testing and treatment, especially for rural clinics.

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And I guess this year, or next year,

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2026,

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they're gonna

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expand that out and do some longer range

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flights,

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you know, beyond visual range. I guess,

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these flights were all conducted,

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I don't know. Somebody must stood on the

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roof or something and controlled the drones or

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at least watched them.

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You know, that technology is getting

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pretty

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good.

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One thing concerns me, you know, as a

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pilot

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is

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they gotta stay

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pretty low.

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You know, I think drones are are, you

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know, drones are limited to 400 feet to

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without a waiver

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of altitude above the ground.

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And, you know, around airports, that might be

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a problem because, you know, there's times when

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I'm below

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400 feet

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in, you know, when I'm coming into land

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or taking off,

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You know, the pattern altitude's a thousand feet,

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so that's, you know, well above

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where the drones would be. But, yeah, hopefully,

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they don't fly them near airports, and I'm

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pretty sure the rules won't let them.

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But that kinda

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kinda,

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leaves me out here living a mile from

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the airport

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or less than a mile. I'm probably,

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half a mile from a runway.

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And, you know, I I can't imagine Amazon's

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gonna do don't drone deliveries in in my

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neighborhood just because of that because it's close

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to the,

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close to the airport. It's it's technically in

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class Delta airspace, which you need

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permission from the controlling authority, which is, in

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our case, the control tower,

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at Traverse City Airport to fly a drone

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in this area. I, you know, I've got

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a drone and I'm technically not

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legal to fly

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the drone even in my yard, even if

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I don't go go above the trees or

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anything.

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You know, I got 80 foot trees here,

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so, you know, I suppose

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if I stayed below the trees, probably wouldn't

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be a problem, but, you know, technically, it's

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not legal, and I don't do it anyway.

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I I take my drone elsewhere and fly

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it,

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But, yeah, what do what do you think

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about drone deliveries? I I think that's gonna

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be kinda cool and and, you know, using

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it

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in a medical setting,

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you know, might make sense.

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You know, maybe

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maybe your doctor's office is, you know, a

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couple miles from the nearest lab, and

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you can,

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have a sample taken at the, doctor's office.

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And the drone lands in the parking lot,

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and somebody runs out there and loads it

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up and sends it off to the lab.

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It

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it might save some time.

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I I don't know how big this is

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ever gonna get, but, it'd be interesting to

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see, next

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next,

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summer or spring or whenever they do their,

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longer range testing.

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Maybe I'll I'll try to figure out when

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that is and maybe keep an eye on

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it.

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With that, everybody have a great

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Thursday.

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And tomorrow, I think I'm gonna I'm gonna

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take, tomorrow as a rant today.

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I've got a, a small rant. Nothing super

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negative, but, hey, we'll see. Catch me tomorrow.