The cost. At around $100 an hour (last time I checked), it just wasn’t worth it, and I had other priorities like buying a house and raising a kid.
To keep current I felt I’d need to fly at least an hour a week, and at least one longer trip every month or so. It’s pretty easy to go through $1,000 a month, or more.
I got my private license about 30 years ago. I flew regularly until I decided to get married, buy a house, and have a kid. Since then it hasn’t been “worth it,” though I still miss it.
Flying was a great educational experience. It gives you a new perspective on the world, allows (requires) you to travel all over your local area, makes you think about weather and geography in all new ways. The most interesting and most demanding thing I’ve done as a pilot was IFR — radar separation, positive control, instrument approaches in the soup.
A few mistakes I remember:
When flying from Denver to Sidney, Nebraska on a filed flight plan, I was reading my estimate and said “two hours, correction three hours” — but after two hours they were concerned I wasn’t on schedule. No harm done, but: always verify your corrections.
Flying from San Diego to Oakland, I signed out the rental aircraft and said I’d be back before 8am. I meant 8pm. The owner was not pleased that the airplane wasn’t back.
Landing on 18L when I was supposed to land on 18R. A couple of times. That’s a big deal unless it’s a small airport without much traffic.
Once I clipped the edge of a restricted area above Dodger Stadium, because I was reading my map wrong. I got a GPS after that. Wouldn’t fly without one, though it’s one more thing to monitor.
The most interesting landing I’ve done was Harris Ranch (3O8) — a private strip in central California next to a steakhouse. The runway is 2,800 feet long but only 30 feet wide, which is deceptive coming in. Combine that with shifting crosswinds and I made three approaches: first one a go-around at 50 feet, second one I touched down long and powered back up (a hay tractor was parked near the end of the runway), third one nailed it. When I pulled up for fuel another pilot told me the wind had shifted from a light headwind to a quartering tailwind on my second try, which is why I went long.
It was the first long trip I’d taken with my wife in a small plane and she handled it well, though I guess she was more nervous than I was.
I don’t regret the license. I just can’t justify the cost anymore.