I pretty much set my normal mode like it said in the instructions that came with my mCPX. But you are right in that ....normal mode you will have 0 pitch at the bottom and it will increase as you throttle up. A lot of people suggest you have a little negative pitch at the bottom(like -2) so if you fly in a little wind it will help landing the helicopter and keep it from getting away. When you idle up, yes you would have 0 pitch at mid stick....positive pitch as you throttle up from midstick and negative pitch as you throttle down from midstick. I think I have mine set to be at 80% throttle at mid stick and 100% throttle at low and high stick. Those settings can be adjusted to your flying style. You could have 70% at mid stick. When I go from normal to idle up mode(or stunt mode)...my heli dips a little but not much because I have it set so when I switch to idle up(I'm usually hovering when I go to idle up)...it will still be hovering even though the throttle went from say 60% to 80%. You don't want your heli to shoot straight up when you go to idle up...so if you are hovering a little past midstick....you want to hover a little past midstick in idle up too. And it just takes a few udjustments in your transmitter to get the pitch and throttle curves to be where you want them. Pretty much in the owners manuel it tells you where to put the settings for normal/idle up. You have 3...so they may call it normal/stunt1/stunt 2. Stunt 2 might be 100% throttle all across...with -10 at the bottom and +10 at the top....0 at midstick. I hope this makes sense.....and everyone sets there helicopter up a little different depending on there skill level. You are right on the throttle hold switch. For safety and to practice auto's.