>>1600583Assuming you're in the US, don't own your own airstrip, and want to fly something heavier than a paramotor or single-seater ultralight, you'll need:
1. A private pilot's license (~$10k, less if you're creative)
2. A hangar or tie-down at your local airport (anywhere from $30 to $1200 a month, depending on where you live and how fancy you want to get). You could also cheese this by owning a seaplane and a waterfront home, but you'd probably lose out in seaplane-specific maintenance
3. The plane itself ($15k-$NaN depending on your requirements and budget)
4. An annual inspection by an FAA certified mechanic ($600-4k per year depending on the complexity of your plane and how much you're willing to help out)
5. Insurance (Ranges from cheaper than car insurance to prohibitively expensive, based on your personal flight experience and aircraft)
6. Maintenance (Anywhere from 1989 Honda Civic money to the purchase price of your plane annually, scales geometrically with complexity)
7. Fuel (simple enough, ~$5.50 a gallon, with single-engine piston aircraft burning between 8 and 22 gallons per flight hour). Can cut this down with a car engine powered experimental, a diesel, or a mogas STC.
All that sounds scary, but if you're frugal and willing to make sacrifices elsewhere, it's absolutely viable to own and fly a homebuilt like a Varieze or something on a normal middle-class salary. If you're sufficiently well established in your career that you own a home and are looking at buying a boat or RV or something, then yeah a plane easily slots into that area of disposable income.
