Heh. Maybe "hobbyist" wasn't the best word; working at NASA sets the "hobbyist" bar pretty high. Regardless, there aren't many groups here that can keep a telemetry lock on a UAV at 11,000 feet without either satellite links or very expensive dedicated radio assets. I wonder if you can buy a sat-com equipped UAV off the shelf these days.
I honestly don't know. The ones I'm used to seeing around here are octocopter camera platforms that run in the 20-30lb range and are designed to lift a DSLR. There's exactly zero reason for them to ever operate outside of line-of-sight. A fixed-wing anything is pretty unusual amongst the FPV crew; a fixed-wing capable of capturing imagery 10kft above a forest fire is the sort of thing that prolly oughtta have a tail number.