XJet

Humans are highly adaptive creatures and can learn to do all sorts of difficult tasks involving considerable levels of dexterity and reactive response.

Gosh, we can ride a bicycle, touch-type; and some can even walk and chew gum at the same time :-)

All of this is a kind of long-winded way of saying that there's not really a whole lot of difference between mode 1 and 2 when comparing fliers of sinilar skill levels.

Yes, mode one does privde a useful lack of unintentional interaction between roll and pitch commands -- but it does introduce interactions between pitch and yaw and throttle and roll. Even after almost 40 years of flying mode 1 I still notice (with my 3D ships) that sometimes I am accidentally putting a little unintentional rudder with elevator.

I suspect that it's easier to hover a 3D ship using mode 2, because there's no unintentional coupling between rudder and elevator -- but I manage just fine with mode 1.

The bottom line is: whatever you're currently using and whatever feels most comfortable is probably the best mode for *you*.

Like many others, I've tried flying in another mode on the simulator and been surprised at how easy it is to dork even a slow-flying trainer. It's all because you've got to constantly force your conscious mind to over-ride those reactions you've built up over the years. It works fine until you get in a tricky position and then *wham* :-)

For the record, down in this part of the world, mode 1 is still more common, but it's slowly losing ground to mode 2, possibly because of all the RC gear being imported direct from the USA or the popularity of those cheap single-stick electric planes/toys that some start out with.