Middle class != rich.

I’ve met almost no one who owns a brand new Cessna Skyhawk as a “I’m a private pilot, it’s mine. I go flying on pretty weekends in it.” Because yeah, the aviation equivalent of a Toyota Corolla costs nearly half a million dollars new. Pretty much all new Skyhawks go to school fleets, the likes of ATC or ERAU.

Older used aircraft can be had for considerably less; a small airplane is within the reach of a middle class income. You might own a plane instead of a Corvette or a Winnebago, you might buy a plane instead of remodeling your house, but its within reach if it’s your ‘thing.’

A lot of the aircraft owners I’ve met are instructors or other aviation professionals, owning an aircraft is a business expense at that point.

Then you get into fractional ownership or flying clubs, where say, you and four other guys you met in flight school buy an airplane together and split the expenses, and share a Google calendar of who gets the plane when. Membership dues-based flying clubs are fairly popular, because they can offer lots of people ownership-like access to a fleet of various planes. A large local club to me is the Wings of Carolina, which when I last checked in owned two C-152s, two Piper Cherokees, two Mooney Bravos and a twin of some kind, and the individual membership dues were less than the ownership cost of one of those 152s.

The funniest part to me is how many airplanes seem to be owned by no one. The number of airplanes tied down to the typical GA ramp with flat tires and flaking paint is…interesting to me.