Maybe my family and some friends were better off than I remember as a kid, but it seemed like in the early-mid 80s, if you were middle/upper middle class, and were of the income range where you could afford a 19-22 foot boat, and to use it once a week, people of about the same means could afford to fly.
A few of my dad's friends had 172s, Warriors, some taildragger biplane that I was too young to remember what it was, but maybe a Stearman, and they flew weekly. And took the neighborhood kids up if their parents were OK with it.
These guys were, if I recall correctly:
-Service Manager at the local Ford Dealer (ex Army Huey guy)
-Owned a small trucking company (got license as Civilian)
-Engineer at Polaroid (Former USN A7 driver)
Not the "must be independently wealthy to afford a plane and fly it" type.