In article ,
says...

I don't think that someone who simply wants to get somewhere would decide to
become a pilot and fly there himself. That's an incredibly awkward, expensive
way to travel. People who become pilots usually have some intrinsic interest
in flying. On rare occasions, a person might become a pilot because he has
some extremely specific need for transportation that only an airplane can
provide (as when he must travel to rural areas of Alaska, for example).



It’s not really the topic of this thread, but I fully agree with that. Anyone
who is tempted to get into aviation in a pragmatic desire to solve a specific
transportation need (outside of Alaska or the Outback of Australia or
something) is probably going to come up short on the goods, and the initial
expressed need will not suffice to get him/her through the whole process of
getting and maintaining all the proficiency needed to do this successfully.
And if they do slug it out, still focused on that travel need and never
developing a passion for aviation, they are likely to make poor pilots. Their
initial decision was probably a poor one, and others are likely to follow.
However, someone passionate about aviation, motivated enough to go through the
whole thing, and who flies regularly. Someone to whom filing an IFR flight
plan and flying off somewhere is completely a non-event, is likely to procure
a huge amount of flexibility, a greatly widened operational footprint and the
satisfaction of being spared the grind of long drives and the belittling
aggravation that airline travel has become.