"I came to the arduino from Xilinx Spartan FPGA's, and even though the FPGA is more powerful and uses a far superior language (VHDL > C), I have been having more fun with the arduino because of no hassle linux support (ISE Webpack RPMs are annoying…"

"Also it must be taken into account that the FAA listens to whoever is the loudest/richest/most powerful (e.g. Obama's user fee proposal). For UAV systems to gain better acceptance it needs to be a much larger industry."

"Skip the C++ and learn C, or better yet learn Python. C++ is a great language if you already have a foundation in another language (especially an OOP one like Python), but I would never recommend to someone who has never programmed before."

"I am a private pilot and I think the easiest way to achieve this would be similar to a real instrument approach. You could set up a rudimentary ILS system using IR beacons and use sensors (ultrasonic maybe? not sure how well that would work landing…"