What is the expectation of flight time?� If it's anything longer than 20 minutes, may I suggest an alternative?<br><br>K.I.S.S.<br><br>Balloon with tethers.<br><br>Nothing relying on power and control is going to either withstand wind, have endurance, be lite enough to fly, or is going to stay in one spot.� And nothing is going to have autopilot/autohover for less than $2000 (<a href="http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/KomplettsetUebersicht">http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/KomplettsetUebersicht</a>) unless someone is willing to spend a lot of DIY time.� One cannot will a device into existence that posses enough of all of these traits to beat a balloon with tethers.<br>
<br>Besides, you'll need someone on the ground focused entirely on flight.� Being that third person view in three dimensions is a challenging task, you'll find that most people get exhausted after almost no time at all.<br>
<br>If you are still sold on the "something powered" solution...<br>
<br>How do we fix flight time:<br><ul><li>Small blimps bob around like a buoy.� You'll get sea sick trying to
watch the video.� Not only that, they'll sail off unless you have a very
decent power supply.� Also, anything neutrally buoyant in open air?�
How are you going to get it back down?� I invite you to solve this
problem FIRST.</li><li>Anything battery powered is straight out.� Lifting a battery in to the air means short flight times - period.� Grow the battery, increase the amount of work required to fly.� Quickly, your battery outweighs it's capacity.<br>
</li>
<li>Fuel poses another problem.� You can't simply turn fuel craft on and off.� If your craft goes out of control, then you have a spinning saw blade looking for a target.� There are solutions...but will they work to the satisfaction of, say, the police?� Believe it or not, there are laws to this effect, and they usually require flying outside city limits.<br>
</li><li>Anything "copter" or "rotor" is going to eat through fuel because they do not benefit from the mechanical advantage of wings.� Basically, flight time requires wings.</li></ul>Once you've solved flight times, control is still a problem:<br>
<ul><li>Who is going to put the craft in a steady hover/flight pattern?</li><li>Will you have a rotation of pilots?</li><li>You can afford an auto pilot?� GREAT!� YOU still need to know how to fly and YOU still need to watch your craft at ALL TIMES.<br>
</li>
</ul><p>
So far, through investigating this, I have found the following recipe:</p><ul><li><a href="http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardupilot-mega-home-page">http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardupilot-mega-home-page</a><br>
</li><li><a href="http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__17227__Phoenix_2000_EPO_Composite_R_C_Glider_ARF_.html">http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__17227__Phoenix_2000_EPO_Composite_R_C_Glider_ARF_.html</a></li>
<li><a href="http://coxengines.ca/product.php?productid=453">http://coxengines.ca/product.php?productid=453</a></li></ul><p>I still don't think it's a good idea, nor do I think it will please law enforcement for obvious safety reasons.<br>
</p><p>My recommendation? Balloons with tethers.<br></p>-- <br>Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein" title="Albert Einstein" target="_blank">Albert Einstein</a><br>
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_Da_Vinci" title="Leonardo Da Vinci" target="_blank">Leonardo Da Vinci</a><br>
Perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_de_Saint_Exup%C3%A9ry" title="Antoine de Saint Exup�ry" target="_blank">Antoine de Saint Exup�ry</a><br>
Keep It Simple Stupid - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Johnson" title="Clarence Johnson" target="_blank">Kelly Johnson</a><br>