Pitt,
I could do a performance analysis but I need some data. I think you could do it using Chris’ method as well and might end up with similar results. I think he uses something like no higher than 5.5 deg collective as the stopping point for hover collective. So keep putting weight on the frame until you reach about 5.5 deg collective. I never took the time to determine my hover collective on the original 2 bladed version of the X-3. I just know that I was seeing settling with power when coming into a hover from forward flight. I had to go full collective in some cases to keep it from hitting the ground. Now that I have a 4 bladed rotor system, I don’t see that issue. but I spent time looking at the trade off between rotor radius, rotor speed and number of blades while trying not to increase hover power required.
As for the recent log you posted, you have some oscillatory frequency lurking in the data. It isn’t being fed back into the system at this point but I think with higher P gains you would see it. Based on what I saw with Chris’ tuning, you may try turning up your I gain more and see how it behaves. The target and actual pitch and roll attitudes seem to be tracking fairly well. As long as you don’t intend to use acro mode, it might make it handle better in stabilize.