Betaflight flight modes: Acro, Angle, Horizon, Air Mode and how to put them on switches

Acro is the mode you never enable

Acro (also called Rate or Manual) is what the quad flies in when no self-levelling mode is active. The Betaflight wiki describes it simply: the roll and pitch sticks control the rate of rotation, just like yaw, and with the sticks centred the flight controller holds whatever attitude the quad is in. Pitch forward 30 degrees, let go of the stick, and the quad stays at 30 degrees until you bring it back.

That is why you will not find "ACRO" in the Modes tab. Oscar Liang's summary: if Angle, Horizon, GPS Rescue, Position Hold and Altitude Hold are all off, you are flying Acro. It needs only the gyro: Oscar confirms in the comments under his article that Acro does not use the accelerometer, so accelerometer calibration does not matter for it.

Angle: self-levelling with a tilt limit

Angle mode uses the accelerometer as well as the gyro. The stick no longer asks for a rotation rate but for an angle, and with the sticks centred the quad levels itself. The maximum angle is set by angle_limit, which defaults to 60 degrees (the CLI accepts 10 to 80). You cannot flip or roll in Angle mode.

Angle mode changed a lot in Betaflight 4.5, and the 2026.6 source code still uses the same settings. The 4.5 release notes call the changes "really big":

• It is much quicker. angle_feedforward (default 50) pushes the quad toward the new angle as soon as the stick moves. Before 4.5, pilots raised the angle P gain to get a crisp response and got wobbles instead. The developers now say high angle P is no longer needed. angle_p_gain defaults to 50, and the pull request that introduced the changes describes that as about as high as it can go on a responsive quad without oscillation.
• Your normal rates set the stick feel. The old angle_roll_expo and angle_pitch_expo are gone. Angle mode now takes the curve from the active rates profile. According to the 4.5 notes, Configurator shows the resulting Angle mode centre sensitivity in the lower right corner of the Rates graph. The pull request strongly recommends Actual rates if you set rates mainly for Angle mode. How Actual rates work is covered in a separate article on this site.
• Yaw turns are coordinated. With the default angle_earth_ref = 100, a pure yaw input while pitched forward turns the quad around a vertical line and mixes in the right amount of roll, so the horizon stays level in the camera. set angle_earth_ref = 50 halves the effect and 0 switches it off. The release notes suggest whoop racers may want it off, while beginners and anyone shooting cinematic footage in Angle mode should like it.

One warning from the pull request is worth repeating: do not lower angle_limit to calm the quad down. It reduces the self-levelling strength along with the maximum tilt, adds lag and leaves less authority to stop or change direction in an emergency. If Angle mode feels twitchy around centre stick, change the rates instead.

The release notes also say Angle, Horizon and GPS Rescue values from older firmware should not be carried over. Start from the defaults.

Horizon: Angle near centre, Acro at the edges

Horizon mode blends the two. With the sticks near centre and the quad roughly level, it self-levels like Angle. As you push the sticks further, or as the quad tilts further, the levelling fades out and it flies like Acro. Since 4.5 that cross-fade is controlled by three settings. These are the defaults in the current 2026.6 source code:

Setting	Default	What it does
horizon_level_strength	75	How hard Horizon levels compared with Angle mode. 0 is Acro, 100 is as strong as Angle
horizon_limit_sticks	75	Stick deflection (in percent) at which levelling is gone completely
horizon_limit_degrees	135	Attitude at which levelling is gone. 135 leaves a 45-degree zone around inverted with no levelling

On defaults, the quad will flip, roll and even hang inverted. It will not level itself if the sticks are deflected past 75% or if it is within 45 degrees of upside down. The pull request warns about exactly this, so do not treat Horizon as a safety net.

For a beginner who wants it to level in every situation but still wants to try a flip, the pull request suggests horizon_limit_degrees = 180 and horizon_limit_sticks = 100. It also lists two quirks. A slow barrel roll tightens as the quad comes back towards level, because the levelling regains strength. And if you overshoot the end of a flip, a strong Horizon setting snaps the quad back to level, which shows up as a bounce in the video. A horizon_level_strength of about 20 to 25 levels slowly enough that the stop looks clean.

Which one to learn on

The Betaflight developers and Oscar Liang disagree here. The 4.5 release notes say Horizon "is a lot more fun to fly, and is an excellent introduction to Acro." Oscar's view, updated in June 2026, is that Horizon feels inconsistent because the quad behaves differently depending on how far you move the stick, and that most pilots are better off going straight to Acro. He says Angle mode is fine for the first hovers or when you are nervous about crashing, but should be used only briefly.

His own setup is a practical middle ground. He flies Acro 99% of the time but keeps Angle mode on a switch for emergencies when he needs the quad level quickly, and does not assign Horizon at all. If you fly freestyle or race, that is a sensible place to end up. If you mainly want to cruise with a camera, Angle with earth referencing is a reasonable mode to stay in.

A simulator is the cheapest place to learn Acro; setting one up with EdgeTX is covered in a separate article on this site.

Acro Trainer

Betaflight has a fourth option made for this transition. Acro Trainer flies like normal Acro but limits roll and pitch to a set angle so the quad cannot flip over. The limit is acro_trainer_angle_limit (10 to 80 degrees, default 20), and the wiki suggests starting small and raising it as you improve. It needs the accelerometer, works only in Acro, and switches off when Angle or Horizon is selected. It is a build option, so check that it was included when you flashed the firmware. The 4.5 notes list it in the default options group but add that most users can deselect it.

Air Mode is not a flight mode

Without Air Mode, a motor that hits minimum gets clipped. The wiki's example: with the throttle near the bottom, a quick roll has only half of its correction available, because two motors cannot go any lower. Air Mode keeps full PID correction, including the I term, at zero throttle. That is what lets you dive, flip and float at low throttle with full control.

It is on by default in current firmware: Air Mode is in Betaflight's list of default features. When the feature is enabled in the Configuration tab, the AIRMODE entry disappears from the Modes tab. If you turn the feature off, you can put Air Mode on a switch instead.

The downside is safety on the ground. Oscar Liang warns that with Air Mode the quad tries to correct its attitude even when you hold it in your hand, that it can bounce on landing, and that a collision can make the motors throttle up hard. Betaflight has some protection. Air Mode becomes active only once the throttle has been raised past airmode_start_throttle_percent (default 25). Oscar suggests setting this close to your hover throttle so take-offs stay calm. If landings still bounce, 4.5 added EzLanding, which you enable with set mixer_type = EZLANDING. It limits how much Air Mode can raise the throttle while the throttle is at zero and the sticks are centred.

Either way, disarm the moment the quad lands or crashes.

Putting the modes on switches

First set up the switches in the radio. On EdgeTX that happens in the model's Mixes page. Channels 1 to 4 are the sticks, so switches start at channel 5, which Betaflight calls AUX 1.

1. Assign ARM to a two-position switch on AUX 1. In the Modes tab, click "Add Range" under ARM, pick AUX 1 and drag the range over the switch position you want. Oscar Liang's tip: set the channel to "Auto" and flip the switch, and Configurator picks the right AUX channel for you.
2. Put Angle and Horizon on a three-position switch, for example AUX 2. A three-position switch sends about 1000, 1500 and 2000. Leave one position with no range and that position is Acro. Give Angle and Horizon one of the other positions each, or only Angle if you follow Oscar's setup.
3. Check that the accelerometer is enabled and calibrated. Oscar Liang's note: if Angle and Horizon are missing from the Modes tab, the accelerometer has probably been disabled.
4. With the props off and the quad connected, flip every switch and check in the Modes tab that the right mode becomes active.

The CLI equivalent is the aux command: aux 0 0 0 1700 2100 assigns slot 0 to mode 0 (ARM) on AUX 1 between 1700 and 2100. Typing aux on its own lists the current assignments, which is handy for a backup.

If the quad drifts in Angle or Horizon but flies straight in Acro, the accelerometer is the suspect. Oscar Liang traces this to vibration and suggests lowering acc_lpf_hz. Trimming the accelerometer with stick commands is described in the GPS Rescue article on this site.