Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
Bottom line: Most of the facts are correct, but his viewpoint is very
"American" and not very flexible. He makes it sound as if flying here
is extremely hard or difficult to achive and as if the rules were a
nightmare. Fact is that it's quite affordable and comparatively easy if
you set your mind to it, and the rules (of which some are quite silly I
agree) aren't really such a nuisance, and can be avoided if you know
how to.

Interesting to see the different viewpoints - appreciated.

I suppose one way to compare affordability and ease of acquiring a license
or certificate is to compare the fraction of population that have acquired
them. For the U.S. I believe about 1 in 500 people have a pilot certificate
(~0.2%). (The FAA published stats on number of active certificate holders
on its web site.) Are there numbers available for other countries like
Germany?