And you get all sorts of people in between, because anybody who can dig up ~£8000 and can spare 50-60hrs or so can get a PPL.
Is that really true? My impression is that the basics of actually flying are reasonably straightforward, but I know a lot of people who would be absolutely flummoxed by the practicalities of paper-and-whizzwheel navigation, and who simply wouldn't be able to pass the theoretical exams no matter how much tutoring they had.
I'll be blunt and say that my day job involves discussing mild to moderately complex issues with Joe Public, and that when I worked in an inner city area, I found myself pondering how civilisation continues, given the proportion of people who still had trouble with numeracy and literacy and the often relatively simple concepts I was trying to get over.
I also agree with the idea that academic intelligence isn't enough to be a good pilot, but whilst I can see that it isn't necessary to be a brainbox, I do think there's a basic minimum level of academic ability required. And perhaps application is even more important - there's quite a lot of material to cover for a PPL (even though much of it is not extremely complex) and I think that without a fair degree of drive most people would simply decide to do something else with their time and money.
The schools are mostly set up to make a bit of money out of punters who are flat broke
Perhaps we have slightly different views on what constitutes 'successful' or 'rich'. Going back to my inner city clients - some of them were reasonably well off, but frankly they'd be in a small minority. A large proportion of them lived very tough lives. I used to work in nursing homes, for example, with women who worked insane hours doing an emotionally and physically hard job for the minimum wage (or thereabouts).
I regard myself as being rather well off on about £40,000 a year - the top 15% or so of earners. But the only reason I can afford to fly is that I used my savings to pay for the PPL course, and I don't own a car which means I have more disposable income than most. I still worry that I'm spending money that I should really be investing. I don't think anybody who can afford tuition at £130 an hour or more is anywhere near 'flat broke' - at least in the way I understand it.