Flight modes. What’s the use?

How many flight modes is there in the drone’s world? It is difficult to answer accurately. If we are talking about racing drones, the main ones are Angle, Horizon, Acro and some sub-modes that can affect their behavior, such as Airmode. In more professional piloting systems, there is a much greater amount of modes. Each controller brand integrates different ones, and we often can find them with different names. Here, we compile the most popular o

How many flight modes is there in the drone’s world? It is difficult to answer accurately. If we are talking about racing drones, the main ones are Angle, Horizon, Acro and some sub-modes that can affect their behavior, such as Airmode. In more professional piloting systems, there is a much greater amount of modes. Each controller brand integrates different ones, and we often can find them with different names. Here, we compile the most popular ones, with the different names that can be found.

FLIGHT MODES THAT DO NOT REQUIRE GPS

1) Acro mode / Manual mode: the RC sticks can be used to control the device angular speed, and it has no assistance nor limitation. It is therefore used in acrobatic flights or in critical situations in where the pilot needs to put the drone capacities into a critical level.

2) Stabilize: it allows to fly the drone manually or acrobatically, but self-leveling the ‘roll’ and ‘pitch’ levels, so that when the radio sticks are released, it comes back to horizontal position.

3) Altitude hold mode / Atti Mode: in this mode, the device holds a constant altitude, and allows the pilot to handle ‘roll’, ‘pitch’ and ‘yaw’ with the same height, but does not use GPS position to correct movements.

4) Sport: it is designed to record images in difficult places, as it allows to stabilize and to keep the vehicle in a given angle.

5) Land Mode / Auto Land: to perform an earth landing, if the pilot is activated it can correct the ‘pitch’ and ‘yaw’ when the drone descends. If GPS is available, it will also use it to correct the position during lowering.

FLIGHT MODES THAT REQUIRE GPS

1) Loiter / GPS Mode: it holds the same position, degrees and altitude, therefore always holding, in stationary mode, horizontal position. With the same orientation, it performs height and automatic GPS position corrections thanks to its sensor technology, and corrects the drifts of GPS movements caused by external factors. In Loiter, the pilot stick entries control the travel speed of the drone.

2) Position Mode: similar to the ‘Loiter / GPS Mode’, but with ‘throttle’ manual control. The drone will therefore hold stable location and cardinal orientation, but will not hold the height.

3) PosHold / Hybrid: also similar to Loiter because the device holds a constant location, direction and height, but with one difference: the pilot stick entries control directly the tilt angle of the vehicle, providing a more “natural” feeling, and allowing a higher moving speed, depending on the motorization.

4) Cruise / Drift Mode: it allows to fly the multicopter as an airplane, with coordinated turns and auto tracings. There is usually one difference between Cruise and Drift: in Cruise, a constant direction of travel is held, while in the second one, this airplane like continuous advance does not always exist.

5) Circle Mode / POI (Point of Interest): the device will orbit in circles around the focal point, with the face of the vehicle pointing at the center, being the lateral displacement a function of surrounding the focal point, and the advance and setback become approaching or moving away from the point of interest.

6) Home Lock: similar to the Circle Mode, except that the center of the path is always the launch site. Therefore, the pitch command consists in approaching or moving away the launch site, and the roll become circular displacements around the launch site.

7) Simple and Super Simple Modes / Curse Lock: these modes are used combining Stabilize, Sport, Drift, Land Flight modes, etc., and allow to control the movement of the drone from the pilot’s point of view.

8) RTL (Return To Launch mode) / Return Home: the drone navigates from its current position to its take off area, or it can even land in the same position. This flight mode is generally configured as default mode if the radio Fail Safe is activated, so that, if we lose radio communication, the drone gets back to us.

9) Auto Mode: with this automatic mode, the drone follows a preset flight mission, which is stored in the autopilot.

10) Guided Mode / Waypoints: in this mode, the drone is wirelessly guided into a location, allowing to design a route and making the drone follow it in real time. Here, a datalink connected to a Ground Station (which commands the drone in real time) is requested.

11) Follow me mode: the drone will follow the user’s movements if he carries a tracking device, which can be a conventional Ground Station with GPS information, a smartphone, or a device specially designed to be autonomous and to achieve this mission. A communication with the device is always requested in order to send its real time location.

All these flight modes can have minor variations depending on the flight controller. It is also important to know that we can set several flight modes at once, and to choose different options only by changing a radio switch during the flight (if set beforehand).

Choose the flight mode that suits better whatever you want to do… and have a nice flight!
All these controllers are compatible with AIRK FireClouds, but please mind the motorization layout, as Pixhawk and APM use a different set of the engines.