Frankly? All hobbyists with an engine have a set of rationalisations. You get on yer Harley and you're Steppenwolf, baby. That is -freedom-. You get on a mini-hydroplane (September 11, Angle Lake, bring the kids 🙂 ) and that is -freedom-.

 OK, now multiply that by 10X. I am not kidding. My wife told me that the first time she soloed in her Cessna 152 was the best sex of her entire life. Which sure made me glad I bought -that- Christmas pressie.

But -every- pilot feels that way. Looking down on the epicness of the world is one of the best feelings imaginable. And just to be clear, it's godawful loud IN THE COCKPIT. But just like the guy riding the Fatboy, the pilot does not care.

And if they don't give a shit about -their- hearing, why on earth would you think they would care about the tiny ants 3,000 feet below? To GA pilots, you're threatening their BEST FEELING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.

Same thing with AvGas. Bitching about 'lead' from 'one solitary little spec of a 172' strikes them like some guy in Brooklyn demanding we all go vegan. They ain't having it.

Or constraining flight plans. The whole -point- of getting a small aircraft is to be able to go wherever the fuck you want. Whenever the fuck you want.

A person flying GA is not on a highway. From their POV, they have the entire sky to themselves. 

And here's the funny part. Just like my 'hobby', sailing, GA used to be a working man's deal. The reason there are so many piper cubs on the planet is that the design hasn't changed since WWII. The planes literally never die and so you can never get people onto better designs

There is a culture of piston engines that is loud and polluting and it will not go down without a fight because it is totally addictive and the last bastion of 'freedom' for a lot of people.


It has nothing to do with aviation per se. It's partly the same reason people ride Harley's. Or light off fireworks. Or play their old Beastie Boys CDs at 2AM.
 
The only thing GA related is this: Flying evening the dinkiest 152 is, according to my wife, "the best sex anyone has ever had since the invention of sex." Which made me feel really glad I bought her that Christmas pressie. Most of the time when you're flying, you have the sky totally to yerself. The ants 3,500 feet below are an abstraction. It's -freedom-. And since the ants are so far away, it's easy to forget how you're affecting other people.