I have ran several websites with forums and it isn't that much. I guarantee the paid advertising on this site by all the regionals and all the pay per click ads more than cover it. I was making quite a bit on a much lower volume site. The owners are making quite a large profit already probably with this much traffic. I sold my sites for a decent chunk of $$ to someone looking to make money off it. A site like this with these traffic numbers would be worth a LOT.

I wouldn't be surprised if the original owners of this site sold this one to someone who is running it strictly for profit now. They probably have nothing to even do with the aviation industry. That is what happens with most high traffic sites like this, they are bought up and ruined by people trying to milk out more advertising dollars.