Why is piloting a helicopter considered more challenging, despite not requiring much space to take off and land and being able to stabilize in the air and stand still?
In: Engineering
> being able to stabilize in the air?
The thing about helicopters is that “being able to stabilize” is something the vehicle actively fights against and the pilot is basically constantly herding it away from instantly spinning around in a random axis and slamming into the ground upside down.
With a normal plane, unless you have problems with the control surfaces or the wings, it just wants to fly in a straight line. If everything is going well, they are so easy to control (in terms of keeping the plane on course in normal conditions, it can get *quite complex* very fast) that they can be completely automated once in the air.
This can also lead to awkward situations, like a plane with a completely dead crew flying most of its planned route and nearly crashing into Athens after it runs out of fuel circling above the city. Or that time recently when a pilot ejected from an F-35 and the plane went on a jaunt for half an hour until it ran out of fuel and crashed in a field. On the other hand, this also means [it is possible for a complete newbie to fly and land(ish) a plane with verbal instructions from a pilot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbTDzPUDxqY).
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