xkcd

I worked at a local TV station and we occasionally did coverage at the local airport that had a lot of small planes and no commercial flights. Like you said, we're not talking about one percenters here. We're talking plumbers that are way into flying. Not even necessarily someone who makes decent money like a plumber. It could be, just like a person in a menial job who spends all their money fixing up a muscle car, a similar situation.

People who fly small planes, as far as I can tell, do it because they're super into flying planes. It really has nothing to do with their economic status beyond "has enough money to buy a small plane." If you get an ultralight that you can just tow to the airport and don't need a hangar for it, you're talking maybe a $20,000 investment. I've seen ultralights for sale for a lot less.