Comment by bri3d

Building RC planes is a little harder IMO, but not much.

The main difference in building planes is you have to pay attention to center-of-gravity much more; minute differences will make the difference between your plane flying amazingly, like a brick (nose heavy), or not at all (tail heavy). There's also more work to do in setting control linkages and surface throws. But, overall, it's not too tough with most models.

Takeoff with planes can be very stressful the first few times; you have to choose between ground/runway takeoff, which typically results in a very inefficient model due to landing gear drag and is prone to flipping over, throwing the plane by hand, which requires practice and can be quite hazardous with a "pusher" style plane with the prop at the back, and building some kind of bungee launcher, which you then have to set up and lug around.

Then you have to decide how to fly - line of sight or FPV. Line of sight flying is quite an acquired skill and has a very steep learning curve - you basically have to learn to "become the plane" and understand how your control stick inputs are affecting the attitude of the plane without being able to see it very well.

FPV plane flying, while less popular than LOS, is very easy and much more rewarding IMO. The reaction time in all but the most extreme plane stunt flying is much less dramatic than in FPV quads.

And, due to quirks of the general hobby flight control software scene, most hobby FPV planes have a working loiter-in-a-circle setting while most FPV quads have a barely-functional GPS rescue mode and little to no ability to actually hover (it's very rare for an FPV quad to "just stay put"; this is the realm of camera drones).

I fly FPV quads when I need a focus/adrenalin boost and FPV planes when I just want to relax and chill. You can fly planes in an adrenalin style, but they're much more conducive to just looking at the scenery and goofing around. Massive bonus points that most plane builds are almost silent compared to an FPV quad so you don't worry about bothering people so much.