Not so. The average person can, right now, cough up about 10 to 15 grand for a fully capable, off the shelf system that can fit in a simple medium scale model plane and fly very great distances out of the line of sight with full up and downlink capability. All you need to know is where to look.

As for licensing, I'm afraid that in the next few years anything, model or uav, that weighs over 25 kilos might end up requiring a license of one sort or another, along with a medical certificate, issued by our friendly federal government. The hand writing is on the wall in big red letters for that one.