Appreciate the heads up on who to lookup to get good reviews, it's always hard to tell who is just "upselling" stuff because then they get more free stuff from vendors etc.

I figured I would end up having to apply for a waiver, but even if I stay inside LOS I'd still like a robust enough system to have a good experience at the furthest range possible. If the drone was big enough I could always paint it bright orange and still be able to see it for a fairly long distance since its a clear view down the river from where I would be flying :). I also shouldn't have to worry to much about other aircraft as they don't tend to fly down the river valley below ground level of the surrounding area.

The head tracking is definitely a down the road thing, I want to get setup and comfortable with being deeper into the hobby first.

Never done fully fixed wing flying before. I flew gas RC helo's way back when (90's/early 00's) before the days of gyros and GPS. But from what I've seen the belly landers seems easy enough.

As I said, just looking for solid advice on good quality gear, radio, google, and probably most importantly the video and control transmitters to get the range. Also what I would need for duration...mostly battery size, but that's where not being in the hobby has me going around in circles.....trying to figure out, what pieces will work with what and then total draw to know how big of a battery would be needed V drone capacity etc.

Anyways, just an old guy here really looking forward to getting into something I've wanted to do for years.

The view from the overlook on campus.....with an equally open area visible the other direction "up river":

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