How high do I have to be off the ground to engage in Loiter mode? I have an APM 2 purple board with gps and a magnetometer and barometer, but no sonar. Do I have to be at least a certain mimimum height before engaging Loiter mode? Or can I be hovering at say 2 or 3 feet off the ground? I want to test the loiter mode, but since this is my first time taking my hexa out for a spin, I'm a little nervous about flying it more than just a few feet off the ground, just in case there's a glitch in the hardware or a mechanical error, not to mention the newbie pilot. I greatly appreciate any advice, thanks.
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In the Loiter mode it uses atmospheric pressure to control height so there will be some variation depending on winds. It’s best to try it at about 10 feet the first and be ready to turn it off if it goes astray.
You can change the set altitude by moving the throttle higher or lower. It captures the stick position when you engage Loiter as the neutral point. You can also guide it around with the stick. In calm weather my quad works great in Loiter. I live in an area with lots of trees that create turbulence so it does not work very well for me on windy days.
In my experience make sure you are completely comfortable controlling it in stable made before attempting loiter.
Make sure that you start high enough off the ground so you have a chance to switch it out of loiter mode if things start to go wrong.
My first few attempts saw the quad start to move quite rapidly and therefore lose a bit of altitude.
Be ready and practice switching back to stabilize to get it under control if things look like they are not working.