[ZO]

I have an odd request...

someone I know wants to broadcast the take off and landing of his flight. Being a long long flight, every kilo counts.

His idea (and mine) was to put a webcam (an iSight or Network camera whatever) to a small Wifi hub. Then from land, follow the plane with a directional WiFi antenna.

Would that work?

Any other ideas?

[curiousuburb]

There are some WiFi web cams available for remote control aircraft of the hobby variety.

"Real" aviation tends to be a lot more strict about spectrum use and electronic interference, at least here in North America. The FAA goes apeshit over use of electronic devices on aircraft, and WiFi can be worse than AM/FM Radio for signal strength.

The fact you're asking about a glider may simplify the question, particularly if the analog instrumentation is relatively immune to RF interference.

What kind of quality is your friend expecting?
Would a cell phone camera pic of the instrument panel work?

[Wickers]

How do you expect to power the hub and cam?
Just mount a small hand-held cam, it will be lighter and take up less space the the network cam + wireless bridge + power supply. Plus the quality will be much better and you don't have to worry about signal loss.