RE: Mode 1 or Mode 2
I remember reading an article in one of the RC mags a long time ago that NASA, when trying to configure the controls of their spacecraft, surveyed a very large pool of people. Because they needed to create controls to hand-fly a spacecraft, they wanted to find the "best" way to do it.
After a very large amount of testing, including equivalents to the various RC modes, single-stick, too, they went t very conventional controls. The controls now used are not used because they happen to be the optimum, but because most of the astronauts who'll be flying the space craft would come from the ranks of military pilots. The system chosen had a configuratioin that the pilots already knew...one less thing to teach.
NASA's study found out that the actual mode was irrelevant. It only had to have good reasons for the layout, and any model could be taught. It's what you learned that counted. Pilots would train faster if the control layout was close to what they were already used to using.
World-class fliers have used a variety of modes, and who cares? Only the flyer. If the majority of people you fly with used Mode I, the Mode I is the one to learn on. Same with the other modes.
I use Mode II, can crash on Mode I, and have flown single-stick but was never comfortable. I learned to fly a Piper Cub before I flew RC, so Mode II was "logical" for me.
'Nuff said.
bax