Hi Michael, I actually bought it from the manufacturer,... its a 'real' UAV :) I'm also interested in going to the UAV Outback Challenge, and thats what I'm intending to take with me. I see your also in Adelaide, if you like we can go out flying sometime let me know.

The airframe was purchased on its own - its very very expensive! I have a variety of other planes which I also fly. Have a look at http://attopilot.ning.com/profile/Ios . I also fly a camera on an XtremeStick which you might find interesting; http://www.youtube.com/user/AvionaEvolution .Which autopilot are you using? I would suggest sticking to ARF trainers until you have that under control, but I find its also good building your own planes.

Attopilot should be available around May. I've only flown the primitive beta unit because I used to be a beta tester, but as you can see its pretty good. It is extreamly easy to use on any airframe and I highly recommend it.

The outback chellenge is going to be very competative this year, there are alot of guys doing brilliant things - can't wait. I'd love to see some of your designs.

re: http://www.diydrones.com/xn/detail/705844:Comment:70818

Hi Michael,
If you have LabVIEW it's fairly straight forward how to compile the code. I only made a change in Jordi's code with respect to how images (for artificial horizon) are loaded - it basically determines if it is being called from application (.exe) or development environment. I can send you / post that vi. Or if you look in photos in my profile you will see block diagram of the vi in question and recreate it. IIRC, there are 3-4 places in top level vi that should be changed - every place where "path to this vi" is called should be replaced with vi I amde. As for posting "built" application, at the moment I am not comfortable with it because I didn't test it on real ArduPilot board (don't have it) and because of discussion in this thread - I am under the impression that if Chris / Jordi where ok with it they would say so....I hope this is not (too) frustrating - from personal perspective I really have no reason (nor desire) not to show/release my modification for everyone's' benefit ...

Paparazzi has a lot of features, and if you program well you can make it do anything you want. Be prepared to spend plenty of time in the tuning portion of the setup.

Michael - regarding your question of likely export date to Australia of AttoPilot, I have a letter here from US State Dept saying expect classification within 65 calendar days of April 14th (that would be mid-June) HOWEVER it also states that if I have a need to export the commodities prior to that then they give two contact phone numbers and names. I will talk to my lawyers about this today.

Dean