PILOT'S GUIDE PRICE $HOPPERS & TIRE KICKERS STORY BY DAVE HIGDON Countering general aviation's only-forthe-rich perception I f someone gave me a dollar every time I heard the statement, " I've always wanted to fly but it's just too expensive, " I'd need a hangar large enough for all the airplanes I'd own. That would be at least three. Add another 50 cents for the look on the faces of those folks when told that the airplane in my hangar cost less than the sport utility vehicle they drove and, well, again, I'd need an even bigger hangar. But four decades of knocking around as an aviation journalist, thousands of hours of airtime and attendance at hundreds of aviation events and those statements still make me chuckle - and scratch my head. Acknowledged: Learning to fly, earning a sport or private pilot certificate isn't exactly cheap. In fact, the costs quoted by fixed-base operators and flight schools in some regions is unnecessarily pricey. And dragging out of those institutions the answers to prospects' common questions can be an exercise in futility. When my late wife decided she wanted to take pilot training, she - 30 -