Flew, as he had, across in (7)
I believe the answer is:
hovered
'flew' is the definition.
(hovering is a kind of flying)
'he had across in' is the wordplay.
'he had' becomes 'he'd'.
'across' becomes 'over' (synonyms).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'hed' going around 'over' is 'HOVERED'.
'as' is the link.
(Other definitions for hovered that I've seen before include "Floated" , "Hung in the air" , "Remained in the air without moving" , "Remained in the one place in the air" .)