[zrobotics]

Owning a private island definetly requires you to be super-wealthy, but aviation doesn't necessarily require that. My dad wouldn't even qualify as upper-middle-class, and he has a private grass strip for an ultralight. In many parts of the country, 40 acres isn't that expensive (my father paid 40k for the land, the entire place was under 200k. And many airports aren't towered, I guarantee there is an untowered airport within reasonable driving distance if any metro area in the US; most private pilots can't afford hangar space at a towered airport, and the larger airports aren't very friendly to small private planes anyway.

Note however that aviation almost requires you to have at least a middle class income now due to rising costs, even for a homebuilt. Whereas my dad was able to afford a used piper cub in the early 70s while he was a student, with no financial help from his parents.

Edit:typo

[walrus01]

Depends where the private island is. There's definitely people with private islands in the Broughton archipelago, and other areas in between Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast/BC Mainland, where the assessed value of the small island + home is less than a dumpy old 2BD house in East Vancouver.

If I had $1.25m in a bank account right now I could go write a check for a crappy early 1970s vintage Vancouver Special, on a narrow lot somewhere off Fraser Street in east van, or for a 3000 sq ft craft built house on a private island with its own off grid power system. Not talking about places with their own airstrip. Islands small enough to be accessible by boat or floatplane only.