Pilots have a distinct proclivity for being in the vicinity of other pilots. That probably has something to do with "nobody else will believe all their stories" but is an easily observed phenomenon. The simplest explanation may be along the lines of "shared insanity"(?).

If you know one pilot you're quite likely to be frequently in the presence of a dozen of them, and will get to know several. It's almost impossible to know one without knowing a dozen.

It is possible, occasionally, to meet just one who is not in the company of a "herd" of them, but one has to stay carefully removed from "piloty places" to do so. For the upper echelons of piloting, this largely means staying away from places where there is Scotch or Gin (the high priced kinds) or where there are approachable young women - within 50 miles a long flat piece of land. For the more casual lower echelons of the herd, anyplace with "beer" can be dangerous.

The same observation can be made about other "occupations" with limited but visible populations. NASCAR winners, good computer programmers, Olympic trap shooters, honest lawyers . . . . (nah, that last population is way too small to form herds. You'd probably never meet more than one.)

John