why some buy a Ferrari or Porsche,
you can only do 70mph, legally, so why are we not all driving around in 900cc
diahatsui's ? answer personal choice, if you have the money, why not,
spend it all, while you can enjoy it, rather than leave it to Brown
Aha, but therein lies the rub. Fine buying a Ferrari or Porsche, but why buy one that was designed 40 years ago and hasn't improved since? And why buy one if a new Dihatsu will outperform it?
I would be surprised if more than 10% of pilots go on trips of over 100nm, or away from their own country. I used to be of the long distance touring bent, fantasising about long trips to Reykjavick (sp?) but I realised that, in my opinion, touring doesn't (bear with me here) celebrate the sheer miracle of flight, rather it turns it into a car journey. Naturally this really only applies to IFR flying.
One thing that alwway strikes me about flight is that at one time there were no planes, no cars, no houses... no people. And yet we somehow metered out the insane genius needed to take the enormous leap into, quite literally, the unknown. Nothing about the appearance or operation of an aircraft is immediately logical, especially when compared to our initial role models for flight, the birds. No engine, no vertical stab - they're obvious now, but back then this was an incredible, staggering departure from the norm, equivalent to conceiving of and building the aquaducts.
And that's the reason for my love of flight, and the reason we should appreciate it so much more. Apologies for the rant!