Gentlemen
Very many thanks for the comments and suggestions. We will go ahead with the vane idea.
The next step in our programme is to win the British Model Flying Association University Challenge.
www.bmfa.org/events/unichall2003.html
After that is a larger aircraft to fly long distances under semi-autonomous navigation, You may be aware that some American gentlemen flew a radio control model across the Atlantic recently.
The overall project is to develop structural and systems design techniques for extremely light weight aerostructures and mechanisms, as well as other onboard systems to allow missions that have been impossible before.
Basic problem for any robotic machine is to be able to carry enough energy to carry out a meaningful mission. So we aim to build things lighter, find more energy dense power sources, new ways of enhancing efficiency and so on.
fobotsco, we have a relatively cheap and effective way of relaying data omnidirectionally out to a few miles within line of sight - more effective and consistent than some of the systems from commercial sources.
Next thing for us to look at is a cheap and cheerful inertial platform! I am thinking of a fibre optic ring gyro (3 axis) built into the airframe structure, 3 axis accelerometers and an IR based optical sensor to give ideas about what is up and down (read high tech captive cat!!). All fused together (filtered?) by software.