Phil wrote:
Recent discussions about whether or not general aviation is dying
prompted me to start thinking about why it doesn't seem to be possible
to build a really cheap airplane. I know that you can buy a trike or
an ultralight for around $20,000. But you can't really go cross
country in one of those, and you would probably have a hard time
convincing most wives to even consider going up in one at all.

Or convince your life insurer to cover you.

My life policy has three exclusions:

Skydiving
Hangliding
Ultralights

Flying as a crew member is no big deal to them.