Jay Honeck writes:

Because people are often poor estimators of time. In the case of
partners/flying club members in aircraft, pilots are often high-achieving,
hard-working folks who lead busy lives. I call them "doers".

Doers *think* they're gonna fly every other day, just like they think they
can (and often do) accomplish anything, so they get involved in owning an
airplane -- only to discover that their lives are already full. So, flying
becomes something they can only do as time permits -- and there isn't a lot
of unused time in a doers life.

So, the planes tend to sit a lot. It's a sweet deal if you have more
available time than the other partners.

It certainly sounds like it would be great for someone who has reasonable
money _and_ some free time on their hands.

It's true that many people who have lots of money also have almost no free
time, and vice versa. Having both money and time is a hard problem. I know
that it's very easy to make millions of dollars, if one is willing to
sacrifice all waking hours to the task, but I don't see the point in having
millions if you spend 16 hours at work, seven days a week.

Being born into money gets around this issue, but unfortunately that is the
luck of the draw, not something one can arrange. Sometimes one can make lots
of money, invest it, and live off the proceeds without having to work, but
even where this is possible, it often occurs so late in life that health
concerns limit its utility. There's not much advantage in being able to buy
your own aircraft if you're confined to a wheelchair by the time you've
accumulated the money.