My money is on a few people buying the systems just for the video downlink and screen.
Lets see how the first few review ones fly.
http://www.suasnews.com/2012/03/13932/ready-to-fly-first-person-view-aircraft/
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My money is on me being one of those "few" :P
I really think it has potential. $300 for a fully kited FPV system. Sign me up!
Here's a link to a seller giving an enthusiastic review: http://www.onlyflyingmachines.com/spyhawk.html
He's clearly touting the products virtues and glossing over its shortcomings but it must be said he does make it look very attractive indeed!
I'm using a 600mW 5.8GHz with CP antenna on the plane and patch antenna + antenna tracker on ground, and get 1.5km. At that range, signal is still strong. I've not been brave enough to go further as my 2.4GHz RC gear goes out of range about there, depending on altitude.
In many countries, choice of 5.8GHz is no choice, because there are no legal bands left once you have used 2.4Ghz for RC & 900MHz for XBee so it is probably a wise choice for them. I also like 5.8GHz because all the components are so compact, even the antennas are small.
I would definately swap out the Video Rx antenna for a CP one for best performance.
One downside of this integrated approach is that you can't use a diversity reciever with patch/CP antennas to get the best signal. Still, CP gives pretty good allround performance.
5.8 GHz can get you pretty far with the right equipment. Here's an example of what you can get with EU-legal 25 mW analog video link power levels: http://vimeo.com/38284562
Price is $350 or $299 on offer but of course, none in stock. With a V2.0 its the $500 AV Raven!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HV8oMGf9Ho
I would still put a CL antenna that would fix video issues for 5.8ghz
Gary,
5.8GHz is very directional and any masking of the transmitting antenna by the aircraft fuse or other objects can play havoc with the transmitted signal.
Regards,
TCIII