ACRO Mode

ACRO (for acrobatic) is a mode for advanced users that provides rate based stabilization with optional attitude lock. It is a good choice for people who want to push their plane harder than you can in FLY BY WIRE A (FBWA) or STABILIZE mode without flying in MANUAL. This is the mode to use for rolls, loops and other basic aerobatic maneuvers, or if you just want an “on rails” manual flying mode.

Note

rate stabilization is not enabled by default for the YAW axis. Set YAW_RATE_ENABLE = 1 to enable yaw axis rate stabilization. Be careful since this will prevent any turns by aileron alone and require application of rudder also to turn. Also, do not enable this if the plane has no yaw control.

To use this mode you need to set up ACRO_YAW_RATE (if using yaw rate controller), ACRO_ROLL_RATE and ACRO_PITCH_RATE. These default to 180 degrees/second (and 0, ie no limit, for yaw.However, for AUTOTUNE on yaw axis to work, it must be set to a non-zero value. 90 degrees/second is suggested), and control how responsive your plane will be about each axis. It is also necessary to have the plane tuned well (see Tuning QuickStart)

When flying in ACRO the aircraft will resist changes to its existing attitude if you have no stick input. So if you roll the plane to a 30 degree bank angle with 10 degrees pitch and then let go of the sticks, the plane should hold that attitude short term. This applies upside down as well, so if you roll the plane upside down and let go of the sticks the plane will try to hold the inverted attitude short term or until you move the sticks again.

Note

the internal controllers will resist attitude changes, but drift due to turbulence or miss-trimming will result in gradual attitude changes. See ACRO MODE ATTITUDE LOCKING section below.

When you apply aileron or elevator stick the plane will rotate about that axis (in body frame) at a rate proportional to the amount of stick movement. So if you apply half deflection on the aileron stick then the plane will start rolling at half of ACRO_ROLL_RATE.

Note

the MAN_EXPO_ROLL, MAN_EXPO_PITCH, and MAN_EXPO_RUDDER parameters will apply exponential to the stick inputs, if non-zero, in this mode. This is for users with transmitters which do not provide this function and desire to “soften” stick feel around neutral.

So to perform a simple horizontal roll, just start in level flight then hold the aileron stick hard over while leaving the elevator stick alone. The plane will apply elevator correction to try to resist pitch changes while rolling, including applying inverse elevator while inverted. But to exactly hold the pitch attitude during multiple rolls without drift, ACRO_LOCKING must be enabled.

Performing a loop is just as simple - just start with wings level then pull back on the elevator stick while leaving the aileron alone. The controller will try to hold your roll attitude through the loop. You can stop the loop upside down if you like as part of maneuvers such as Immelman turns or cuban eights.

Note that if you are using ACRO mode to try and teach yourself aerobatic flying then it is highly recommended that you setup a geo-fence in case you get disoriented.

Warning

It is very easy to stall your plane in ACRO mode, and if you stall you should change to MANUAL mode to recover.

  • make sure you know the limitations of your airframe, and what the correct stall recovery procedure is. This varies a lot between airframes. Search for stall recovery tutorials for R/C aircraft and read them

  • don’t overload your airframe, only fly ACRO mode with a plane capable of surviving full control surface deflections at any speed.

  • make sure you have enough airspeed for whatever maneuver you are attempting. Throttle and speed control is completely under manual pilot control in ACRO mode

  • practice stall recovery before trying anything too fancy. Make sure you practice when you have plenty of altitude to give you time to try different recovery strategies

It can be a lot of fun flying ACRO mode, but you can also easily stall and crash hard. Automatic stall detection and recovery in autopilots is an area of research, and is not yet implemented in Plane, so if you do stall then recovery is up to you. The best mode for recovery is MANUAL.

ACRO MODE ATTITUDE LOCKING

By enabling the ACRO_LOCKING parameter, whatever attitude (roll and pitch angle) the pilot places the plane in, upon releasing the sticks, the autopilot will not only resist rate changes (caused by trim or turbulence), but also attempt to hold and correct back to that attitude. Note that his requires that the plane be properly tuned (see Tuning ).

It is recommended that it be set to “2”, instead of “1”, in order to use a quarternion based control system with much better performance than the older system. In order for this to be effective, yaw rate control (YAW_RATE_ENABLE) must be “1” and the yaw rate controller tuned using Autotune for best performance.

ACRO Mode YAW Rate Control

As of version 4.2, ArduPilot provides the option for utilization of a rate controller for YAW, which behaves in the same manner as the pitch and roll controllers, explained above, but for the YAW axis controlled by the Rudder stick, assuming the vehicle has a rudder control surface.

To enable this functionality, set YAW_RATE_ENABLE to 1. When enabled, the ACRO_YAW_RATE parameter can be used to adjust maximum yaw rate demanded at rudder stick full deflections in ACRO mode.

Before use, the controller should be tuned, either manually or using AutoTune. See Automatic Tuning with AUTOTUNE or the YAW tuning section of the Manual Tuning page.

Note

using this controller will give the feel of a ‘heading hold’ yaw axis. While not exactly “heading” holding, it does resist any yaw rate change not commanded by the pilot. This means the pilot will need to “fly the tail” in turns. Just banking will not generate a clean turn.