I picked "building" because that's what I spend most of my available hobby time doing.  Therefore I must like it more.  Right.  Sounds good, huh ?

I spend most of my available hobby time building because I'm lousy at it, actually.  Oh, I've built my share (and then some) of models of the powered r/c persuasion, of almost every general variety, and I've got a bag full of tricks I can use to get them built.

The 'problem' I have is that I know what the real McCoy looks like (and in most cases what it sounded like), and getting a model made that realistically represents the real thing tends to drive me slightly 'round the bend.  Worst scale detail I ever had to make ?  The trim handle on a 1/3 scale L-4 (J-3).  Looks a lot like the window crank on a mid-50s car to some extent.  Can't be bought in 1/3 scale (doll house hardware is way too small), isn't nice and flat so using flat stock aluminum didn't work, and lacking a mill the %&$** thing had to be filed by hand.  Getting it to -work- was almost as difficult (no, it didn't actually change the stab incidence the way the 1:1 does it, but the knob did rotate).  It's getting the scale details right where there is nothing available that lends itself readily to the task that's frustrating.

Having been at this lunatic hobby far too long already, I can't go in a store that doesn't have hardware goodies and stay very long - it's boring.  If I do get into a shop of some sort that has lots of small hardware goodies, I may come home with the most ridiculous pile of unrelated items imaginable 'cuz they look like they could be used to make a whatsit one of these days.  I mean, I've never been known to go to The BORG for an item and come home with something entirely different, instead of the thing She sent me there to get in the first place.  It's got to the point where She starts out with "On your second trip to The BORG, . . .".

Although building scale models can drive you insane (and in some cases it's a short trip, I know), and building scale model airplanes is even more lunatic because they can be transformed back into all their original itty bitty parts in about half a second, it's as pleasing a pass-time as I've even practiced, including racing sports cars, ham radio, making leather goods, throwing ceramics, and a few other odd-ball leisure activities (no, sky-diving never will have been on my list of things to do - I think it's just plain dumb to jump out of a perfectly good airplane that's not on fire !).

As others have indicated, the best part about this idiot hobby is the people, but from my perspective only a fraction of the people in the model airplane hobby fit the bill, and that is the small percentage who are similarly afflicted as me, the 5% sho-nuff' scale artists and the 95% of us trying to understand how those guys manage to do it all in their sleep.  I mean, some of the creations I see around here would have taken my lifetime and then some to build, so "they" must be able to build the things while they're asleep, right ?

The guys at the flying site with the crazy colored aerobats don't strike me in the same way, 'cuz they don't come off as being "airplane people", they strike me as being bored people who don't invest enough time in much of anything to really become involved in the real meaning of the hobby.  Certainly, the guys who fly the aerobats well are good at what they do, but what they do is really nothing more than manipulate the controls of the transmitter better than most other duffers.  And the guys with the kit-box non-scale aeromodels aren't any better or any worse, and all those guys are having what they think is fun.

It seems to me that the majority of the folks in aeromodeling don't put much time into the hobby itself, and in too many cases they get more wound up in Roberts Rules of Order, politics, and club antics than in actually pursuing aeromodeling.

Scale builders aren't that way, in general.  Like the other bunch, scale builders just want to fly for the most part, and Roberts Rules don't matter much there.  Of course scale builders socialize and "hangar fly", but who doesn't ?

I don't join clubs for the social atmosphere.  If there is one, fine.  If not, just point me to the flight line please.  If I wanted a social atmosphere I'd probably take up knitting 'cuz those folks don't do anything -but- socialize (while their fingers are doing "knit one, purl two" or whatever, their minds are buzzing and their mouths are yammering about everything in the world -except- "knit one, purl two").

I like scale builders because generally speaking, they are all about the airplanes themselves, and it doesn't matter whether their fancy is real airplanes (round engine, tail wheel, two wings), WW II "heavy metal", or jets.  Scale builders are like me, they live and breathe airplanes, and it doesn't matter whether it's a model or one you can ride in.  Does anyone go to an airshow to look at the Extras ?  Nope.  But people do go to airshows to see WW II bombers and fighters.  Do I spend the bucks to go to Reno in September to see the L-39s whine their way around the course ?  Are you nuts ?  I go to hear the music played by Merlins and Pratts.  Although they've only got the one wing, they're pretty close to real airplanes, methinks.  And it's not a chore to put up with a pair of Packards tooling down the main straight, either.

I like -airplanes- !  Always have, ever since I learned what was making that gawdawful droning racket in the sky - B-36s, and the remaining WW II stuff that was still flying around central Floriduh in the early 50s.

When I go to an aviation museum, I'm impressed by the static displays where  the engines have drip pans under them and there's oil in the pans 'cuz the engines are still leaking.  (Old rule I learned from some real aviators I knew - if it ain't leaking don't get in it 'cuz it's empty !)  My favorite air museums have aircraft that can (and do) actually -fly-.  Naturally, some of the display aircraft are too valuable and irreplaceable to kick the tires and light the fires, but it's nice to know that you -could- do that.

So, I like airplanes per se, and I like airplane people.  Scale builders are airplane people.  Must be, otherwise they wouldn't spend so much time getting their models exactly right; they wouldn't fuss back and forth about whether a color is correct, or spend countless hours trying to figure out what a little blurry circle in a photograph was, and they certainly wouldn't spend countless hours adding non-functional weight that'll only make the model tougher to fly than it should be.

There's an odd kind of sanity to this insane hobby, and it's hard to describe, but I betcha most respondents here immediately know what it is once they see it.

I think the poll is all wrong because it's got too many choices.  I think the poll should really have been "Yes or no - do you beat your head against the wall because it feels so good when you stop ?".

Then again, there are a few folks around here that're pretty sure I'm not quite right . . .

I LOVE TO BUILD!!!  I have built unknown number of planes since 1970's.  Before that I think I built every Comet kit produced.  (I still have several Comet kits in the box thanks to EBay purchases)

Right now I am beginning to build the Aeronca from Wendell Hostetler.

I have SOLD most of what I built, or built for other people just because I love the process of building.  The cannot be a price put on the hourly scale for building, so usually I just ask for the expenses paid, plus a donation of a new kit.

I fly ... "OK" as long as I keep to scale flying.  I can't fly 3D or any of that crazy stuff that airplanes shouldn't be able to do anyway.
SO I BUILD!

Oh, yes... I never touch the ARF stuff.

I like all of it. I like to do the research for what I would like to build. Building for me is a little tough since I only recently got the room to do it, and have limited supplies to cut pieces out with. Flying for me is the best part because then you see the finished product doing what its supposed to.

I know right now Im trying to do too many thing with not enough time to do it. Ive got plans, so now its time to do the research and start cutting out the parts to build with.

But now Im back, during the winter not only do I try to work on something but I race r/c cars at the local hobby shop since they have an indoor track.