Auto Hover

Auto Hover is an assisted flight mode for aircraft capable of hovering flight (e.g. 3D-capable fixed-wing aircraft hovering on the prop), providing stabilization assistance to help hold a stable hover attitude.

Because hovering fixed-wing flight has fundamentally different control characteristics from forward flight, Auto Hover applies distinct handling from WingFlight's normal forward-flight stabilization -- enable it via the Auxiliary tab on a switch you can reach quickly, since transitioning in and out of hover is often a deliberate part of a maneuver.

Only pitch and yaw are attitude-held, correcting back toward vertical when the sticks are released. Roll (aileron) is left as a free rate pass-through rather than held -- in a nose-up hover the aircraft's roll axis coincides with the world vertical axis, so roll becomes the pilot's spin/pirouette control, the same role yaw plays in normal nose-level flight.

Tuning

Gain sets how aggressively the aircraft corrects back to vertical/held heading once the sticks are centered. Max Angle bounds how far pitch/yaw stick input can deflect the held attitude away from vertical before it springs back on release -- the same idea as Angle Mode's max angle, just centered on vertical instead of level. Max Rate is a safety clamp on how fast Auto Hover is allowed to rotate the aircraft toward the held attitude -- most relevant the instant it engages from forward flight, since it commands a large, sudden attitude change toward vertical.

Auto Hover holds attitude and heading only -- throttle stays fully manual, and the mode has no awareness of airspeed or whether the aircraft actually has enough thrust to sustain a vertical hover. Engaging it without enough thrust available will still command the pitch-up, and the aircraft will likely stall or tumble rather than hover.