Don't do what I did. I ran out of fuel while flying an airplane. What does this
have to do with money? Because I want you to be aware of the dangers that can
cause you to crash and burn. I don't want that to happen to you. When you get to
the end of this episode, you're going to be blown away with what you can do to
protect yourself from running out of gas.
I'm Doug Andrew. And I want to address the question of how you can tell if your
money is in danger. And I'm going to do that by sharing a true story that took place
several years ago when I had a private pilot's license. I actually owned 2
airplanes. One with one group of friends, one with another group of business
associates. One was a Cessna 152. A little two-seater.
The other was a Piper Archer that's a 4-seater plane. Well, we used to take
these planes to various cities when I needed to be able to have flexibility.
And I had offices in the state of Washington, Seattle. And the tri-cities
area, Las Vegas, Denver. Sometimes when I would get in the plane, I would take one
of my children with me. So, my oldest daughter was only 5 years old at the
time. Her name is Mailey. And so I would usually try to take one of the kids. Have
them have a daddy business trip experience. And so, I am flying that day
from Provo Airport in Utah. And I wanted to take the piper. But I didn't realize
somebody had rented it from us. Because that's what we did when we weren't using
it. Nobody told me it was rented out. So, I had to use the Cessna. But I had flown in
that little Cessna 152 to North Las Vegas Airport several times. I knew it
like the back of my hand. And if you're not aware, usually when the weather is
good, you fly to V-O-R stations. V-O-R stands for variable omnidirectional
range. And those are the old things out in the desert sometimes they look like
big bowling pins or Mexican hats. You fly as the crow flies. But that day, there
were low clouds. I wanted to fly visual and so I decided to fly down the i-15,
interstate 15 corridor which was this big L route instead of straight. I
wanted to stay low and be able to just follow the traffic. But there was a
headwind. And I had always arrived at North Las Vegas Airport in that Cessna
with a quarter tank of fuel remaining. So, what am I worried about? So, I had my
girl in the plane and we're flying in about halfway between st. George Utah
and North Las Vegas. And I looked down at the dashboard at the fuel tank gauges
for the first time. And they were buried in the red. I went, "I'm so stupid. I'm
going into a headwind. I'm only going 98 knots. I'm taking a longer route." I was
buried in the red on those tanks. And I thought, "Oh, deer! If I run out of fuel, it
wasn't a matter of if, it was when. If I turn around and trying to get back to
st. George to that Airport and I run out of fuel,
that's a gorge there. It would be ugly trying to land. So, I thought, "I've got to
keep going. At least I have flat desert between where I was and North Las Vegas."
To be honest with you I've never prayed harder. I strapped my little girl in the
seatbelt. I kept my elevation at 10,000 feet. And I was looking at options all
the way. And I thought, "Okay, if I ran out right now, what would I do?
Oh, I could land with the traffic on the freeway. Or I could land in a field with
the furrows. Not against them. You don't want to topple over. Or is there any
telephone poles or is there any fence post. Am I going to shear off the wings." Well,
folks, it was nerve-wracking but I'll tell you it was worse: As we began to
approach Las Vegas, I could see it in the distance. But between me and the North
Las Vegas Airport is Nellis Air Force Base. That's restricted airspace. You
can't fly through that. I did not want a skirt to the north in the mountains. So, i
radioed in to the air force base frequency. And I said, "This is just a 5
155 Bravo. Requesting permission to land and quickly refuel." He goes, "Permission
denied. Not only that, "You are in restricted
airspace you will skirt to the north." I said, "Sir, I cannot. I am going to fly through
your airspace." He said, "Well, you will do that at your own risk." He said, "Okay. Turn to
this frequency." And then he informed his f-16 pilots. They were doing f-16
training maneuvers. And so he told all the f-16 pilots to Turner in that
frequency. He would go, "Five five Bravo, you have two
f-16s at 11 o'clock, verified." Okay, okay. "Alright. Now, you have to it 2 o'clock
verify", I felt like a moth flying through a bunch of Hornets. It was
nerve-racking. I finally could see North Las Vegas Airport.
I was so grateful. A prayer was answered that there was no traffic in the pattern.
Because normally you have to wait your turn to land and going in a traffic
pattern this way. I said, "This is a Cessna 5-155 Bravo to the Unicom station
requesting permission to do a straight in." "You can do that." When I knew I could
finally make it, I put my flaps on and I fell out of this guy I came down. I
touched the tarmac and ran out of fuel trying to get off the runway. So, I was
stuck there. I called the fuel truck. This young man comes out like, "Who are you?"
As always, filling it up. Now, a Cessna 152 has 2
tanks one in each wing that holds that total of 26 gallons. 13 in each wing. He
put in 28 and a half gallons of fuel up the spouts. And as he was doing that, he
goes, "Sir, do you know how low you were?" I go, "Yeah,
I ran out." [Laughs] He goes, "Man, you like to live on the edge, don't you?" No, I don't. But I was so
grateful with my little girl that day that I was able to come out of the sky
being out of fuel and land safely. What did I learn from that? Are you ready? So, I
learned that when I fly, I make sure I take everything into calculation. I don't
take things for granted. And hello, the fuel gauges were in front of me for 2
hours and I ignored them because I got into the routine of flying where I had
done that trip so many times and always ended up with a quarter tank of fuel.
Well, how does that happen with our money or real life? Many times we have signals,
signs, gauges that tells us we're in danger. We're going to run out of gas.
Whatever you want to use as a metaphor here. We're so oblivious. "Oh, the economy
is booming." All of a sudden a tsunami comes and blows us over. Do you remember
the tsunami in Thailand? And what happened is somehow the fish
communicated to the birds which communicated to the cats and the rats
and the elephants on land to get to high ground. But the higher forms of
intelligence --humans, they're going out on the beach oblivious to all these signals.
"Oh, I wonder what why the waters clear out there right now. And then they get
blown over with a tidal wave." Folks, there are financial tidal waves. And I've seen
it. People just think everything's hunky-dory. Hello! We've been in a boom
economy we're long overdue for a correction to recession. Look at all
these signals. Savvy business owners they'll go, "Oh, yeah. The same signs are
there. We're hunkering down. We're getting ready. We're buttoned up. We're going to be
ready for this hurricane." And other people are just oblivious to it. Even
though the signals, the gauges are saying "There's going to make a major recession or
a correction." You do not want to run out of gas with your money. You do not want
to be in danger crashing and burning because you weren't paying attention to
the signals that are there. So, I would invite you to learn how you can be aware
of the dangers, the signals. And make sure no matter what happens, you will have
enough fuel. You'll never be in that situation I was in because I made sure
that never happened again. And I want that to be true with your money. So,
please study, learn. I would encourage you to watch this episode to understand how
to eliminate the dangers that usually cause people to crash and burn
financially. So, you don't have to go through that heartburn and turmoil. This
is about empowering you.