Well, I'm not up to any really brave stuff yet, but I did decide to try sport mode today. Holy crap on a cracker....got it up to 43 MPH but the wind was behind me so it was movingThe one thing I noticed was that once I switched over to sport mode, the video stopped recording and I never noticed it so I don't have and video of it screaming over the trees. Either that or I accidentally hit 'stop recording'. Either way it was awesome.
You're right: Sport mode is awesome!!
The closer you are to fixed objects, the greater the sensation of speed...but also the greater the risk of colliding with something. I've found that it does take a few seconds to accelerate from 0 to 43, which translates to a fairly long distance (e.g., a football field isn't long enough to get all the way to 43 mph) at least in my experience. The other day I tried a few runs on a local school athletic field, at about 5 ft AGL, accelerating from 0 with full forward stick. My intention was to start at one boundary of the field, get as close as I could to the line of trees at the other side of the field , and then do a "zoom climb" (full up stick)...I only got to the mid 30s before having to pull up. Remember, obstacle avoidance is OFF, when Sport mode is ON!! While it was nice, the climb rate was not as dramatic as I anticipated...it seems that you don't get the full effect of trading forward speed for altitude with the quad, like you would with a fixed wing airplane.
Another aspect of Sport mode is that your climb and descent rates are roughly doubled.
To achieve these speeds, the MA has to pitch forward significantly more than it would at lower speeds. What that means is that you'll probably see the landing gear in the camera field of view, especially if you have extensions on.
Finally, Sport mode comes at a price...it sucks the battery down BIG TIME!
As to your last point, I've often changed between Sport and GPS modes while shooting video, recording right through the transition, so I suspect you inadvertently stopped the recording.
