Most people who get a PPL give up very quickly, for various reasons.
Of those that remain, different people keep at it for different reasons, but they will all have one thing in common: there is a fair bit of hassle to be dealt with on the ground, and one needs to get a "return" on the activity which makes it worth doing.
When this return stops coming, you pack it up.
For most, the main return is the joy of flying.
The more determined pilots embark on a quest to get some utility value out of it too. This is much harder than just plain PPL-level sunny-Sunday flying, because you need to get your hands on a capable plane and some hard to get bits of paper for yourself which entitle you to fly in/above cloud.
To get real European transport utility you more or less need an IR and a very capable plane, and very very few pilots, perhaps 1% of the PPL population, ever reach that stage. Even that you will never (short of a jet) reach the reliability of an airline. And obviously it works only between proper airports.
For me, each year I get lots of UK away-day trips, a number of foreign get-aways each year, and one or two really nice flying holidays to warm places. But the last one is possible only because I can fly ~ 900nm in one go (5-6hrs).
The moment the wheels touch the ground, the hassle starts. Back home, it's airfield politics, maintenance hassles, you name it. Being airborne has to be a pretty good compensation.
One cannot pretend it's cheap but at ~ 20mpg is compares well with road transport. Great many 4x4s on the motorways get nowhere near 20mpg when going fast.
It will never compare with a cheap airline of course, but as one gets older one gets increasingly resentful at wasting half a day at the sh***y place called "airport". In fact I find it hard to believe that large numbers of people are willing to put up with the treatment. I'd rather fly myself.
Last edited by IO540; 13th May 2008 at 10:16.