Manual/Stabilized mode - maybe rate control

[Mitch]

After I did the first flights in stabilized mode, I was thinking about how the flight related to real airplanes. Modern fly by wire airplanes (airbus) only use direct law for takeoff and landings below about 100 feet. During flight and maneuvering the sidestick actually controls the rate of change in pitch and roll. When placed in an attitude with the sidestick, the airplane will remain in that attitude when the stick is released.

This is down the road, but it would be interesting to program this and see how it behaves.

[Tom]

Really interesting, I'm don't fly real planes so I don't know how they handle things.

Actually, the quadrocopter stabilization code works by adding a PID to the roll/pitch/yaw rates instead of applying them directly to the angles. It should be easy to adapt it for planes if you want.

It could be something interesting for people wanting to learn how to fly. But the gluonpilot's stabilized mode is a step up towards navigation. That's why your stick controls the angles and not the rates in stabilized mode.

Feel free to add a 4th mode

[Mitch]

I understand - the stabilized mode works great as it is - I'm thrilled with it! I didn't intend to imply otherwise. Just a seed for something I might play with in the future. There would be a lot of 3d airplane enthusiasts interested because in theory one could lock an airplane into a hover and it would stay there. Personally I'm a purist!