Frank, I think you have hit on a reality. Affordable flying is just not that convenient any more, nor does it save any time. In my case, for instance, it is a 40 minute drive to get to the airport (at 50-60 miles per hour), then opening the hangar doors and moving out two airplanes before I can even get to mine, time for preflight (and maybe fueling up if I hadn't done it when I put the airplane away), cranking up the engine and letting it warm up before I even taxi to the runway. By now, Ive used up in the neighborhood of an hour and a half. Once in the air I can travel in a straight line at maybe 85 miles per hour (wind direction dependent) unless I have to deviate around restricted airspace. But if all things are in my favor (wind direction, air sapce, etc) in the two hours of fuel that I have on board, I can get maybe 180 miles from my start point. This means that I have travelled 180 miles in three and a half hours for an average of 51.4 miles per hour, which I can easily do by car (which requires very little int he way of 'preflight'). This means that I fly because I like it - not because it is convenient, timely or comfortable.......