Brian writes:

I have to disagree that most pilot/ aircraft owners qualify as rich.
Flying has more to do with priorities that the amount of money you
make. My observation is that most pilot aircraft owners are more
middle class people that have opted to drive a 20 year old car and own
an airplane rather than buying a new car every 5 years.

Fanatics, in other words. Does the fact that some people are fanatical enough
to sacrifice mundane comforts just to fly mean that flying is accessible to
the average Joe? No, because the average Joe is not a fanatic.

Many poor people in the Third World could afford a TV set if they spent
nothing on anything else. Should we say, then, that the absence of TV sets
among the poor of the Third World is just a matter of inappropriate priorities
among the poor, and that TV is not accessible only to the rich in developed
countries?

A quick drive to a local active airport will confirm this, just look
at the kinds of cars that are driven. You will see a few expensive
cars but the majority will be older less expensive cars.

If aviation were not a rich man's hobby, it wouldn't have to be one or the
other.

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