It takes no more skill assembling a set of retracts than it does hooking up and getting the throttle set right. However there are a few things to remember. If your engine quits and you know your not going to make it back to the runway, leave the retract up. Never ever even think about landing in the rough with the gear down. You'll rip them completely off along with most of the wing. If you leave them up, minor if any damage at all.

All retract mounts in an arf need to be beefed up with epoxy so they will hold up better and not rip out. Case in point. I have a WM P-51 about 5 years ago (still have others, nice planes) anyways. I slopped a pile of epoxy on and around the inside of them. Flew it for a couple years. One day the battery failed. I was making a gear pass to make sure the gear was down when it quit. that plane was still going about 80mph and went off into the north forty and went in darn near fullspeed. We we found the "remains" it was like it went through a wood chipper but that gear was still mounted in those blocks!

If you have a very rough landing area. I would advise against them.