My latest creation ..

[Jay Vaughan]

> I guess that Jay's creation is below those 500g, so from a legal point of view he'd be safe in Switzerland. I believe Austria doesn't have that 500g limit. Germany on the other hand is a lot more restrictive (including a weight limit of 5kg unless you're flying on a field with explicit permission). Oh the fun when law starts to interfere with your hobby...

I'm intentionally not getting into the bigger, heavier stuff, so that I can keep flying safely in my local neighborhood .. there are some great RC clubs/fields around the area though, but part of the fun is that we don't have to get in the car to go somewhere to fly .. as you know Martin, we have lots of wide open spaces in walking distance..

The next major "R&D" step is to build a solar-powered plane that can auto-navigate the Donau Insel .. we'll be using ArduPilot (Ardupilot.org) which is an *AMAZING* platform for hobby/DIY Drone development .. ;)

Once this works (and especially when the 'gatekeeping' function is working, whereby the plane will fly only within defined geographical regions, refusing to fly out of those areas) I will attempt to build a small fleet that can be launched from our garden.  Oh, also, FPV: http://fatshark.com/  FREAKIN' AWESOME!!! :)

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Jay Vaughan