That doesn't appeal to me as a very persuasive argument against aircraft ownership. Are you an aircraft owner? Because I gotta tell you, I am, and your numbers are waaay skewed by the fact you assume the entry point to GA is a 160K airplane.

If you bought a 160K airplane that burns 7GPH (i.e. an LSA or Cessna 162), then you're doing it wrong.

I've posted my numbers on this board before, but to reiterate, if you own a 40-60K airplane that goes 130-150kts and burns 8-13GPH (btw between where I live and where I go, gas is between 4.50 and 6.50, which means if your average fill up is at pumps that cost 7/gal, you're again, doing it wrong), insurance, the same hangar cost (which admittedly is low for urban areas) and an amortized nominal mx of 5k/yr, you're looking at 12-20K/yr depending on how many hours you fly. That's an airplane that gets you 500NM in four hours or less. That's 12 hours each way minimum in a car btw, accounting for the fact you can't drive to your destination great-arc.

Both my Piper WarriorII and Piper ArrowII all-in costs have been below 15K/yr. On the WarriorII I flew 265 hours in one year no less! More typical use should be 100 hours or less, which is what I'm on trend to fly on the Arrow this year.

As to overhaul costs, more like 25K for a to-new limits on an injected four banger, less for carbed small bore 4-banger. You can slip and crack your neck on the bathtub. That risk doesn't deter me from taking showers while living. Worst case scenario catastrophic engine failures (which don't happen often in the aggregate) don't deter me from owning and flying private aircraft.

--break break--

As to the engineering jab, well of course! I didn't suggest one go get a pedestrian job that pays peanuts, like engineering. That wasn't the point. The point was that if you're not going to enjoy your job as much as flying an airplane would, you gotta get a job that makes a heck of a lot more than flying an ERJ whilst giving you the time to afford recreational aviation. Working the oil rig support jobs doesn't count, when you have to be gone 330 days a year to get 115K. If you were home every night for 115K then that would be construed as a good job, and I know first-hand you could afford private ownership on that money. But 115K gone 330/yr is not a good job, that's called the [pedestrian] military. I wouldn't do that, airplane or no airplane. Don't kid yourself, that's just paying for my wife and her lover to live well in "everyone wants to move here" Florida while I hump it in South Dakota or wherever the eff. (no disrespect intended your way, E2CMaster)

I'm not suggesting airplane ownership is cheap, but it does beat flying an ERJ for 50K/yr. Making six figures as a pilot is easier money than earning it as a pedestrian, BUT, it's a lot easier to attain a six figure job in the first place as a pedestrian than as a civilian airline pilot. That's why I bring up private aircraft ownership. Now, if you're in the life position where you self-assess that the aggregate sum of your talents, the education you can honestly successfully complete, and/or your inclinations towards work, only net you at best a 65K/yr job in the real economy, then perhaps it would be reasonable for that individual to pursue a starving pilot career. At that point I'd agree, you're not foregoing anything. I just happen to believe I can command more than 60K/yr as a pedestrian, so flying an ERJ for 50K is a grave opportunity cost to me if I wasn't making six figures flying airplanes.