When you first get into FPV, one of the biggest questions is: which flight mode should you use? In Betaflight, the three most basic flight modes are Acro mode, Angle mode and Horizon mode. The main difference is simple: Angle mode and Horizon mode self-level while acro mode doesn’t and requires manual input at all times. However, as FPV pilots, you should absolutely fly in Acro mode, and I am going to explain why.
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What Are Angle & Horizon Modes?
Both Angle mode and Horizon mode are self-level modes, that means the flight controller automatically tries to return the quad to level whenever you let go of the sticks. This is the common flight mode in camera drones.
If you tilt the quad forward, backward, left, or right, and then center the stick, the quad will try to flatten itself out again. You do not need to manually correct every movement and it’s all done automatically.
This makes these flight modes much more beginner friendly, it’s like having training wheels to your bicycle when you were learning how to ride it.
Between Angle mode and Horizon mode, they are very similar, with a small difference:
- Angle mode = self-level + limited tilt angle
- Horizon mode = self-level near center stick, but allows flips and rolls at full stick
In Angle mode, the quad can only tilt so far and you cannot do flips or rolls accidentally. This makes Angle mode the safest and easiest to learn at the beginning. It is very forgiving and feels stable, especially if you are hovering, taking off, landing, or flying slowly.
In Horizon mode, near center stick, the quad self-levels like Angle mode, but at larger stick inputs, it allows flips and rolls. That sounds great in theory, and many people assume Horizon mode is the perfect stepping stone between Angle and Acro. In practice, I am not a huge fan of it. The reason is that Horizon mode can feel inconsistent. Around center stick, it behaves like a self-level mode, but when you push harder, it suddenly transitions into something more like Acro. That mix can feel less predictable than simply learning proper Acro from the start.
What Is Acro Mode?
Acro mode is the default manual flight mode for FPV.
In Acro mode:
- the quad does not self-level
- when you move the stick, you are commanding a rotation rate, instead of an angle
- when you release the stick, the quad stays at whatever angle it was at until you correct it yourself
So if you pitch the quad forward 30 degrees and let go of the stick, it stays pitched forward at 30 degrees. If you roll 60 degrees and let go, it stays rolled at 60 degrees.
Your drone is in complete manual mode, there’s no automatic correction – this is why Acro mode feels more difficult at first. The drone will not save you from your mistakes. You must constantly manage its attitude yourself.
But this is also exactly why Acro mode is so powerful.
It gives you:
- the most precise control
- the smoothest flight once mastered
- full freedom for freestyle
- better control through turns and dives
- a more connected feel
This is the mode used by basically all experienced FPV freestyle and racing pilots.
Why You Should Use Acro Mode
This is the big question.
Why should FPV pilots use the harder Acro mode, when self-level modes feel much easier?
Because Acro mode teaches the correct skill.
If you spend too long in Angle or Horizon mode (e.g. flying DJI camera drones), you can end up building habits that do not transfer well to real FPV flying. The quad is always trying to help you, so you never fully learn to manage the aircraft attitude yourself.
In Acro mode, you learn:
- throttle control
- momentum management
- coordinated turns
- proper recovery
- smooth and precise camera angle control
- spatial awareness – how the quad really moves in space
Once Acro mode clicks, it feels much more natural than self-level modes. You stop fighting the flight controller, and the quad starts feeling like an extension of your hands. You and the drone became one.
That is why nearly all serious FPV pilots fly Acro mode.
Are Angle & Horizon Modes Better for Beginners?
On your first few flights, yes, it can be.
Angle mode can help if you are:
- totally new to drones
- trying your first hover, or just testing the drone
- learning basic controls
- nervous about crashing immediately
But I would only use it briefly.
It is fine as a training tool, but I would not get too comfortable with it if your goal is FPV freestyle or racing. The sooner you start learning Acro, the sooner your progress becomes more meaningful.
Some people use Horizon mode as a bridge between Angle and Acro, and that is understandable. But personally, I think many pilots are better off learning acro mode as soon as possible and just skip Angle and Horizon modes entirely.
The transition to Acro may feel harder at first, but it is a cleaner way to learn. Horizon mode can sometimes make the quad feel strange because it changes behavior depending on how much stick input you use.
If you really want to try Horizon mode, that is fine. Just do not let it become a long-term crutch.
How to Enable Acro Mode in Betaflight
You don’t need to enable Acro mode, it’s the default mode in Betaflight.
That means if you do not enable other flight modes such as Angle or Horizon, your quad will fly in Acro mode automatically.
So in Betaflight, if:
- Angle mode is off
- Horizon mode is off
- Rescue mode if off
- Position hold mode is off
- Altitude hold mode is off
then you are flying Acro mode.
To set up flight modes, you can do that in the Modes tab in Betaflight Configurator: https://oscarliang.com/betaflight-modes/
Personally I still have Angle mode assign to a switch on my radio, which is useful in emergency situations where I need to quickly level the drone (e.g. when I want to scratch my face :) ), although 99% of the time I would be flying in Acro mode, from the moment I take off until I land. I don’t bother assigning Horizon mode at all.
The Best Way to Learn Acro Mode
How long it takes to learn acro mode will depend on the person, how often you practice, and whether you use a simulator.
Very roughly:
- some people get the basics in a few attempts
- many people need a few days to feel somewhat comfortable
- becoming truly confident usually takes much longer
The hardest part is the beginning, because Acro mode feels very unnatural if you are used to self-level drones or camera drones.
The best way to learn is:
- practice in an FPV simulator
- keep your rates manageable (default rates are usually fine)
Once you feel comfortable flying acro mode in the sim, you can then try it on a real drone:
- expect crashes
- fly in open areas (ideally with grass to soften the crash impacts)
- stay close to the ground, disarm quickly if you are losing control to minimize damage
Do not judge Acro mode by the first few packs. Almost everyone feels terrible at it initially.
But once it starts to click, progress can happen quite quickly and it’s extremely rewarding.
Flying Acro Mode Line of Sight Is a Completely Different Skill
This is something worth pointing out.
Flying Acro mode in FPV and flying Acro mode line of sight are completely different skills.
In FPV, the camera view makes everything more intuitive. You are sitting “inside” the quad, so left and right always make sense.
In line of sight, orientation gets confusing very quickly, especially when the quad spins around, your stick control won’t make sense anymore (at least for beginners). Flying line of sight in Acro is harder for most people.
So if you struggle to fly Acro line of sight, that does not mean you cannot learn Acro in FPV.
They are different skills, and FPV Acro is much easier to learn than LOS Acro for most pilots.
Final Thoughts
Angle mode and Horizon mode are both self-level modes, and they can be useful at the beginning. They make the quad easier to control because the flight controller helps level the drone automatically.
But if your goal is real FPV flying, then Acro mode is where you want to be.
Acro mode gives you:
- full control
- more precision
- better flihgt feel
- the right foundation for freestyle, racing, and cinematic flying
It is harder at first, no question. But it is worth it.
If you are serious about FPV, think of self-level modes as temporary training aids, not the end goal.
Because once Acro mode clicks, you probably will not want to go back.
50 comments
I totally agree, but maybe you could also explain Air mode? I believe that is acro, but the props always keep spinning, making dives and such much smoother? I use it instead of pure Acro and I believe it is the default mode in BF these days?
Air mode is a feature not strictly a flight mode: https://oscarliang.com/betaflight-airmode/
Two other items …
1. Acro mode produces smoother video than angle mode does – angle mode is always snapping the quad back to flat. And every little finger twitch matters. While in acro mode the quad stays put, flying through the air as is, until you change the rates. Smooth.
2. Indoors flying ducted quads, when you hit something (it tends to happen indoors, right?) … in acro mode the quad just bumps off normally. Where in angle mode, if you hit something, the quad goes nuts trying to self stabilize – ya never know what it’s gonna do. Same applies outdoors, BTW.
Thank you, very good points.
Oscar, good argument which reflects my experience exactly.
I am a retired pilot in my seventies with 10K + hours in a variety of commercial and military aircraft. I started FPV this last winter and was quickly overwhelmed by the complexity and dynamic aspects of this captivating hobby. Horizon mode made it possible for my brain and fingers to sort out how to fly the quad for more than a few seconds but it never felt right. As I became better at controlling the drone it felt like I was fighting the stability system more and more as what I was seeing did not reflect what I wanted the drone to do. I began to take off in Horizon and then when safely airborne switch to acro. When the battery dictated that I return to base I went back into Horizon mode. When I became more proficient in handling acro mode I started to use it more and more with the result that I now seldom use Horizon at all.
The learning curve to all this is steep but I have seen it before. As a basic jet instructor in the airforce I taught many pilots how to fly close formation. Initially it seems impossible and then ,as if by magic, after a half dozen hours the eyeballs connect to the hands and it just works.
I love your articles and happily support you on Patreon.
Thank you for the comment Doug.
Yes it’s really amazing how our brains work and how well it works if we put in the time to train it.
Oscar should I ignore the requirement to calibrate the accelerometer if I fly in acromode?
Yea acro mode doesn’t use accelerometer.
Oscar: thanks for describing the need of calibrate accelerometer in Betaflight for acro mode drone flying
HI Oscar. Want to thank you first and foremost for all of your informational videos and posts.. without you, i dont know where i;d be. :) i have a weird issue with a small whoop.. WHen going to acro mode. the responses are very slow, sluggy then very overresponsive a second later., in angle /horizon, its snappy and very responsive.. flips rolls, no issue. only when i turn off self level modes its like im trying to drive in peanut butter then breaks free.. ive tried a couple different tunes/presets and can notice the slight vairations but still a slug in acro.. what am i missing? much thanks Dave
. .
Maybe back up betaflight first, then do a re-flash and reset all the settings and see if it’s software related?
Hey OSCAR
Why Angle / Horizon Mode
uses both Gyro & Accelerometer sensors
and :
Acro mode
use only Gyro sensor
Because in order to self-level, you need to know the attitude of the drone, and the accelerometer tells you that. The gyro only measures how fast the drone is rotating.
Just a comment that yeah, simulators will do well teaching you to fly rate/acro mode.
I’ve been flying RC stuff off and on (more off…) since the late ’80s. Let’s say I was an active pilot for one year out of every 5-10 hah. In the mid/late 2000s, I experimented with hanging cameras off helicopters and then a quad around 2010 or 2011? Never FPV. Fast forward to last year and I played with the DCL/DRL sims for a while. This year I messed around with DRL again for a bit, and then got my hands on a cinewhoop and flew it around in angle mode for a couple of days. One day I thought “What the hell” and flipped the switch to acro and….found it wasn’t hard at all. Flew about 2 batteries where I took off and landed in angle, but flew the rest of the pack in acro. Then started doing acro the whole time. Crashes due to “learning acro mode”? Zero. I have made a few mistakes while stretching my skills (mild aerobatics, a long way from “freestyle” stuff) but nothing too serious. Mostly catching leaves/branches while flying through a wooded section of my property which could (and did) happen in angle mode also.
I meant, “ if you’re having fin in ANGLE……”
ChopperGirl, Bardwell recently said he “changed his )elitism attitude” about running in angle mode after he did an informal survey of the top Tiny whoop race pilots and he says, “Found out all the top tiny whoop race pilots fly in acro mode So who am I to tell you it’s bad?”. So, if you’re having fun in acro that’s what it’s for – to use. I mean, yes, you do give up some maneuverability but so what if you enjoy it! That said, I generally fly acro only outdoors but I’ve been flying in rate mode on all kinds of RC aircraft for years (especially 3d helis – still my first love for all out aerobatics). However, I often use angle mode indoors because, as you wrote, it’s just less intense and I run into fewer things. So hey, do what works for you and have fun. I mean, manual shift cars are a lot of fun to drive once have experience (When there is no traffic) but guess what, most people own automatics.
I started flying in Rate mode and got the hang of it, but found it mentally exhausting… so much so I wanted to give up quadcopters all together. It wasn’t enjoyable… it was constant work all the time. I even switched to 0 angle camera to make yaw “make sense”.
I switched to Horizon mode to see if there was anything I could do to get these sensors to at least take some of the exhaustive mental load off me… and make the quad fly at least a little bit more like the gunships in BF 2142… if I’ve got them on board, why not put them to work and use them. There is no shame in that.
Even in Horizon mode it’s still takes a lot of continues work to bank and navigate obstacles, but at least I can find a little enjoyment in it. The quad still flies nowhere as good as a 2142 gunship. Diving buildings is harder, because the system wants to fight you to flip the quad back to level, but you chose what price you want to pay. For me, jumping off the stick and letting the quad level itself again is worth the trade off of doing complex and usually bizarre and unwanted aerobatics.
choppergirl.air-war.org
Hi Oscar, I am learning to fly in acro mode, 1 of my weirdest matter is that I cannot keep the quad going forward. After a while, it always bank itself to left or right. I try to correct by rolling to the opposite direction but no use and sometimes it even go backwards faster and crash… Any advice to keep the quad going straight in acro mode? Thanks
1. make sure your transmitter sticks are all centered?
2. increase I term on roll/pitch should reduce drifting
It is interesting that people who fly tiny whoops seriously tend to use angle mode from choice, even though there are plenty of FC options that provide rate mode.
well, sometimes you do need the added stabilizing from the ACC for flying through tight gaps :) I do prefer flying angle mode indoor so i don’t mess up my walls and TV screen lol
I have a vortex mojo 230 flying in acro mode. It does not hold its angle. For example, if I angle forward and return the stick to neutral i expect it to keep flying forward at the same angle, but is slowly starts to level back out. Is this something that can be corrected in pid settings or something?
Thanks!
One problem I find in rate mode is that if you touch anything, the PID loop(s) is/are usually overwhelmed and you tend to get a sudden step change in pitch and/or roll angle – craft flies off in some unspecified direction which tends to lead to an instant crash.
Not a problem outdoors, but in our (tortuous and rather cluttered) house I find it virtually impossible not to touch anything. In practice it makes it very difficult to stay flying for any period in rate mode without a crash, so resort to angle mode.
What would be really good would be a version of angle mode where pitch/roll are used as a rate of change inputs (ie as in rate mode), but that these are converted to an time varying angle, ie the control loops are operating in angle mode but the input is rate of change. In that way you would get a form of rate mode that should not be massively upset on touching anything. Would either have to change to true rate mode on extreme angles, or just not allow extreme angles, but indoors that would not matter (not to me, anyway).
I have a SkyViper V2400HD. Nice machine to learn to fly LOS self-level mode. But I’ve recently purchased a Wizard x220 and a 4S battery. This thing is a beast! Spent some time programming it. I didn’t realize I had enabled Acro mode. My bro an I went to a field to fly. He hovered a bit okay. Then it was my turn. Tried to fly it LOS and it only lasted 5 seconds in the air. Bent a prop when it violently hit the grass upside down. I knew there was much to learn.
So I purchased a USB flight cable to attach my transmitter to my computer. Funnest thing ever. Used FPV Freerider & FPV Event for a while. I’m now playing DRL Simulator. I can’t believe that one is free! Now that’s an amazing FPV sim. I love the tutorial modes, that’s what I was looking for in a sim trainer. Not just “here ya go dude, now fly” like some of them.
Anyway, I keep getting better and better using my sims, that soon enough I’ll be able to go out in the field and maybe keep the quad in the air for more than 5 seconds. ;)
Hi Oscar, this post helps begginers a lot…what would be ur suggestions on the best FCs for mini racers that support self-level mode, i mean…does any actual FC still support it? Couldnt find any reference to it in the LUX V2 description for example :( ….Whats the best one in ur opinion? thanks a lot !!! ….. ^^
any FC should support self-level (at least for Cleanflight and Betaflight). Every MPU has both Gyro and Accelerometer.
LUX V2 does too.
Depends on what feature you are looking for there is no one “best FC”. check out our Top5 FC articles for some ideas.
Hi, thanks for the detailed article!
I haven’t flown acro/rate/manual mode yet, but it sounds like ‘manual’ mode is a complete misnomer. It isn’t really ‘manual’ at all, and ‘rate’ or ‘acro’ are much more appropriate terms.
I imagine that if it were truly manual, then a quad wouldn’t hold its attitude when centering sticks. Inertia would cause it to continue to rotate even after discontinuing control input. A truly manual mode would require constant compensating stick movements to counter that inertial continued rotation.
Is this analysis correct, or am I misunderstanding something fundamental in the article?
it sounds like you haven’t really flown it yet… Once you compare self-level mode and “manual” mode you might feel differently.
You are correct from a physics standpoint: acro mode uses readings from the gyroscope in a feedback loop to make the craft not rotate on any axis when all sticks are neutral. IF there was a pure manual mode, no stick input would have some amount of rotation on some axes, unless there was 100% perfect center of gravity balance, 100% perfect aerodynamic properties in each direction, the wind was 100% calm (your propellers rotating will make this impossible), and all propellers, motors and speed controllers are in perfect condition. In this case, the quad could maintain its rotation with no stick input.
I have only gotten into quads in 2018, but I imagine the time before flight controllers would have been true manual mode. People calling acro-mode manual-mode are abusing that term.
Back in the days there were a few different flight firmware, all using different terms for the same thing. Later on people carry on calling the same thing using different terms even though when they are discussing the same firmware…
How do you actually change modes on baseflight?
I’m using a raspberry pi to talk to the naze32 through a USB connection but i’m having a problem which I believe is called the “bunny hop” for obvious reasons. I am wondering if there is a way to change to angle mode so my quadcopter can stay leveled without it slamming itself into the floor. I am a complete newbie in this area so please don’t assume I know anything.
Thanks in advance
Youri Rombouts
Get APM software on that Arduino! (Look it up!)
Good day!
I im learning to fly in a rate mode of toy grade quads . Din in preparation to a hobby grade quads from 120-130mm class. Is this same whem i shift to a hobby grade tx flying in acro mode?
Thank you
on some toy grade quads rate mode work slightly different, but regardless that shouldn’t stop you from upgrading and learn it on a hobby grade quad :) just make sure you practice on soft grass and get plenty of propellers, you should be fine.
Ok, I am getting the idea that rate mode has a lot to offer, but it is hard at first. And quite a bit different than auto-level. So my question is: once you switch, does it become nearly impossible to switch back to auto-level, because it feels “too weird”? If I learn rate-mode, will I have a hard time flying toy-grade quads that don’t have rate-mode?
not really :) it’s like learning riding a bike then learn swimming, you won’t forget one or the other :)
I think it’s more like learning to drive a car with a manual transmission. You can always go back to driving an automatic later without any issues.
Oscar, I’ve been following your posts and I LOVE the insights you share. Here’s one for you:
I want to fly acro/rate mode for pitch, but auto-level mode for roll.
I’m assuming Betaflight’s ‘Horizon mode’ would accomplish this, by setting pitch stick deflection to 0° (essentially putting pitch in rate mode all the time) and setting roll stick deflection to, say, 70° (so that barrel rolls can still be completed during extreme stick deflections).
What are the odds you have explored this and could comment?
Hi Jonathan,
As far as I know you can’t mix flight modes.
but what do you want to do this?
thanks
Oscar
Hi, I am building a quadrotor for first time and I implemented rate mode successfully on that…
The problem is I can’t implement angle mode over the rate mode!
Rate mode works great, but when I enable angle mode, quadrotor is too slow to stabilize with some overshoot. It takes a few second to go to desired angle and when I release the stick, it returned in same way…
This is what I did in code:
rate_needed = PIDcalculate(&pid_roll_stab, desired_angle, current_angle);
pwm_for_roll = PIDcalculate(&pid_roll_rate, -rate_needed , current_rate_gyro);
Rate PID has P,I coefficents and Angle PID has P for now…
Thank you
Hi Oscar!
I finished a build of 250 quad recently: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/54741704//Other/copter/el%20el/assembled-for-first-flight.jpg
After some doings with the settings and radio and so on I finally got it to fly ok in autolevel. But in rate mode there is slight angle drift on pitch (it increases incline to back).
The trick here is that quad actually not balanced – it’s center of gravity is ~2.5 cm to back from the center. I know that it possibly will fly better if balanced, but I just want to understand where this angle drift comes from so I experiment with unbalanced quad. As far as I understand, the “rate” mode is something like “angle lock” mode – sticks control the speed of angle change, and when sticks are not touched it should maintain the set angle. But it does not. What confuses me a lot is that the speed of drift is different over time. At the flight start (battery full) – the quad maintains angle ok, but as closer it gets to empy battery, the significanlty it starts to change angle by itself (up to about a degree per sec or even more).
Why it can behave like that? Can you, please, recommend me a direction to continue investigation?
It seems that the problem was “I ” in PID too low for pitch, so it wasn’t able to stabilize. I increased I (almost twice, actually) and now it locks it’s angle almost pefrectly.
does it drift to different direction or always that direction? i think it might be I gain too low?
are you using 5030 props? it could also be that your quad is under powered…
lastly… i would really appreciate it if you could post your questions on the forum: http://intofpv.com … I only check my blog comments once a week, but I use the forum everyday!
Hi Oscar ,
Cab you quantify what a “bit” expo would be? What’s a good starting point?
add 0.05 everytime, until you are happy with it?
Is there a way to limit the angle in rate mode or even horizon mode? My biggest problem is giving it to much pitch and slamming into the ground. I’m going to try lowering the level pid’s in angle mode until i can get some smooth fpv video like rate mode. I want to learn to fly rate, but flying fpv i like to give it full pitch without flipping over.
yes, use angle mode, it won’t allow you to go over 45 degree by default, you can change this angle limit in CLI i think. I don’t think it’s possible though in rate / horizon mode.
In Cleanflight configuration software, this is done through CLI command “set max_inclination_angle = XX” (or “max_angle_inclination” in Betaflight). You might also want to adjust your expo to account for the changes this would make to your corresponding stick deflections.
I’d highly recommend people grab themselves a simulator that supports FPV or quadcopters, like RealFlight 7.5
I use to fly auto level modes and assisted flying modes all the time, but I spent a couple of hours on the sim, and the next time I went flying at the park, I had to turn auto leveling mode off as it felt too weird :P
Now I’m an avid flyer of rate/acro mode and highly recommend it to others. Its much easier to be smoother around corners and generally push a bit harder.
LiftOff is a great new software program – joint venture between FPV gurus FatShark and gaming wizards Steam. It reads my Taranix X9D perfectly, has settings for customizing a quad to match your real-life setup (lipo size, PID settings, FPV cam angle, etc), and even offers a multiplayer simulator.