It is likely that your airplane was set up with too much down elevator. When in safe mode the radio compensated for the down elevator and kept the airplane in level flight. You may, in fact, want to get a nicer radio at some point but this problem can be solved with mechanical adjustments on the ground. With the aircraft propped into a level flight position you shouldn't see much if any change in the elevator position when shifting from position #1 to #2. You may be able to accomplish this with the electronic trim switches on the radio but it is better to do it mechanically.