Flight Modes¶
This article provides links to Plane’s flight modes.
Overview¶
Plane has a wide range of built in flight modes. Plane can act as a simple flight stabilization system, a sophisticated autopilot, a training system or a flight safety system depending on what flight mode and options you choose.
Flight modes are controlled through a radio transmitter switch, via mission commands, or using commands from a ground station (GCS) or companion computer.
Major Flight Modes¶
All of the flight modes below have optional additional controls that may be used to change the behaviour to suit particular flying needs. After you have read the introductory material below it is highly recommended that you look through the complete set of Plane parameters so you can explore the full range of functionality available.
| Mode | Roll | Pitch | Throttle | GPS | Need TX | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MANUAL | - | - | - | Y | Manual control surface movement, passthrough | |
| FBWA | s | s | - | Y | Roll and pitch follow stick input, up to set limits | |
| FBWB | s | A | SPD | Y | Y | like FBWA, but with automatic height and speed control |
| CRUISE | A | A | SPD | Y | Y | like FBWB, but with ground course tracking |
| STABILIZE | + | + | - | Y | Wing-leveling on stick release | |
| AUTOTUNE | s | s | - | Y | like FBWA, but learns attitude tuning while flying | |
| TRAINING | + | + | - | Y | Manual control up to roll and pitch limits | |
| ACRO | + | + | - | Y | rate controlled mode with no attitude limits | |
| Q(Copter Modes) | s | s | A | Y | Y | Varies depending on mode. See quadplane documentation |
| AUTO | A | A | A | Y | Follows Mission | |
| LOITER | A | A | A | Y | Circles point where mode switched | |
| CIRCLE | A | A | A | Gently turns aircraft | ||
| GUIDED | A | A | A | Y | Circles user defined point from GCS | |
| Return To Launch (RTL) | A | A | A | Y | Returns to and circles home or rally point | |
| TAKEOFF | A | A | A | Y | Automatic takeoff to specific altitude, and loiter at distance from takeoff until mode is changed | |
| THERMAL | A | A | A | Y | Mode entered to search for thermal lift by SOARING feature or manually if lift is encountered. See :ref:`THERMAL Mode |
| Symbol | Definition |
|---|---|
| - | Full manual control of flight surfaces |
| + | Manual control with stabilized limits or assistance |
| s | Stabilized control with limits |
| A | Automatic control |
| SPD | Controls speed |
Note
Automatic throttle controlled modes can optionally have pilot-based speed adjustments using the throttle stick via the THROTTLE_NUDGE parameter. Otherwise, the autopilot will attempt to maintain AIRSPEED_CRUISE airspeed if an airspeed sensor is being used, or TRIM_THROTTLE as a target throttle, as in FBWA and CRUISE modes.
Note
Most altitude controlled modes can optionally maintain altitude with respect to Terrain instead of relative to HOME. See Terrain Following for more information.
Warning
Any stabilized control mode requires tuning for optimal performance. The default PID and TECS values are very conservative to avoid uncontrollable oscillations. Perform an AUTOTUNE before using stabilized or automatic roll and pitch modes extensively. Tune TECS before using automatic throttle modes extensively.
Note
AUTO mode also provides for Automatic Takeoff and Automatic Landing.