1. Can you recommend a good place to buy Helium?
- helium could be from a local party store in greenpoint, call around and you might find a deal. Then you can fill up the balloon in the neighborhood, make sure they have a door big enough to walk a 5'5" balloon out of, and walk it over to your launch site -- good for a pied piper effect :) Oh, just make sure they have "ultralift" helium that is not cut with air -- tell them you need it for the lift. If there's no party store around who can work with you, an industrial gas supplier will set up a contract and delivery of a tank to your site.
The only thing I can add to what Liz said is that I've had good experiences with Liberty Gases http://www.libertygases.com/ You have to put a deposit on a tank upfront which increases the cost but you will get that money back...and they deliver for cheap.
2. Do you have a camera to loan as well as the ballon and kite kits? I have memory cards but will need to secure a camera if not available.
- there is another event going on that will have our two better cameras, but i will look to see if i can find more. If you can get a canon camera, i can help you put the hack on it this coming week. It's totally not required, but i find it simplifies field work.
3. If not planning to fly that high and not to tether the ballon, should i still go through process of checkin with FAA?