The Pilot, Not the Plane: How to Choose Better Real Estate Sponsors | Ep 140

James
I've been thinking of a lot of ways to start this podcast, but at the end of the day, I read an awesome book. I'm highly inspired. It's great and I wanna share it. There you go. And so we're gonna talk about the Wright brothers and and them doing their first historic flight.

Jessi
Those are great sorts of stuff. Yeah. Do a podcast.

James
It is. It's fantastic. And we'll be related to real estate investing, because that's what we do here.

And um yeah, just absolutely great. And so we're gonna do that on the Furlo Capital Real Estate podcast where we dive into the intricacies of passive real estate investing. Maybe some aviation.

We'll see. Not passive though for sure. And our mission is to equip people to soar high so that they can invest wisely in both property and people.

Maybe some planes. I don't know So that together we can build wealth while improving housing. I'm James and this is my wife, Jessi.

Jessi
Do I sense like a shift in focus here? You're gonna start investing

James
Oh do planes and warehouses and Me and Warren Buffett just buying some planes. That'd be great. I mean I don't think you'd mind it.

That would be cool. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I don't feel called to do that. We definitely have had that discussion, but no, I don't feel called to do that. Planes are cool.

But after reading this book, it was pretty cool. So it is the two hundred and fiftieth birthday year of the US and so as a part of that I am reading books that span so far all of US history. Thankfully we're not that old, so it's pretty easy.

I kind of broke I broke everything up into 25 year chunks and um just kind of get after it. Yeah. And so um doing the right brothers.

And then after that, moving into World War One. Which is different vibe for sure. Um but very interesting because airplanes were kind of still new, but not really.

So that's why it was mostly I've never thought about it from that perspective. Yeah, they'd only been around for Couple decades, yeah, at that point. And so yeah, pretty wild.

That's crazy. And uh but yeah, I've so I've read a whole bunch of books. Started out with The Revolution and George Washington, moved into Lewis and Clark, which is But it's either the Wright brothers or Lewis and Clark.

It's like I don't know which one's my favorite, but they're like they're top two. They're my favorite. Turns out I like the the combination of two people out there conquering the world, you know?

Grit, hard work, determination, and just doing something that they love and that they're really good at. So it turns out I like those type of stories. And uh these guys were It was it was awesome.

Um I gotta I'm trying I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. Uh but they were bike mechanics. Okay.

So they there were other people who were also trying to fly and there was this famous um Uh another famous American, um, Langley, um arrow aerodrome. Um He he spent seventy thousand dollars on a government project to get a plane. Which was a lot better.

That it was a lot. It when he did it, it went up and straight down. Oh.

Didn't really fly. Uh cure to guess how much the Wright brothers spent to get their first flight? Um, I'm guessing a lot less.

Uh-huh.

Jessi
Ten doll.

James
Well, no, I mean that's not reasonable. Five thousand. Uh no, they only spent a thousand dollars.

Jessi
A thousand dollars?

James
Yeah.

Jessi
Did okay. Did they use like bike parts or something?

James
Uh no, they fabricated a lot of their own stuff, but yes, no, they just so one of the interesting things about them I gotta make sure I don't get ahead of myself. Is that they weren't in it for the flame and glory. They were like, this is an interesting problem.

Jessi
And so they were Yeah, it was it was more about trying to get the contraption to fly.

James
Correct.

Jessi
Than getting noticed or Yeah. Yeah. So that other guy was more more in it to like do something cool.

James
Oh yeah. No, he wanted the fa the notoriety and the famous of it all. And so what's what's also telling about this guy is once they did it, he just stopped.

He's like, I'm good. So he wasn't into it, which is kind of an interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jessi
Because he wanted to be the first.

James
Correct. Uh so their first light was December 17th, 1903. So turn of the century.

And yeah, pretty pretty crazy. So Let's make this relevant. Right.

So oftentimes uh as investors, it makes it's fun to chase after well-funded, well-credentialed operators. You see this in the in the stock market all the time. We got like when companies are going well, it's like everyone starts to pour in.

I totally get it. But sometimes we can mistake a bunch of resources for skills. And um and so I think it's important to try to distinguish those things.

And don't get me wrong, if you're getting a lot of resources, that can that's that's good. But or it can be as a it's a it's an signal that you're potentially doing it well.

Jessi
One of many.

James
But it depends on where those resources are coming from and why you're getting them. Because eventually they did They did end up with a lot of money after the fact. Yeah.

But um interestingly, like they were not upper echelon. Like they weren't, they weren't rich. They were just, they were very wealthy.

There's a difference there. Interesting. Again, we're talking about a place in time where like you can spend a thousand dollars to get a plane up.

There were millionaires.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
Which like unheard of. And they didn't reach that level. They were like a modern day millionaire.

Jessi
Strange.

James
Like adjusted for inflation. They had like a hundred thousand dollars or a little bit more or eighty.

Jessi
Why did that other guy get so much money and they

James
Didn't he tell a good story, got the government on board. They didn't even ask.

Jessi
He was a salesperson.

James
Yeah, they didn't even ask. They were just like they were just doing their own thing in Dayton, Ohio. There you go.

Which is which is crazy. Wow. Yeah.

So let's dive into it. Um I think so one of the uh one of the uh early things that happened to them was so they they started committing to it and there were what they call 'em. Um aerodynamic tables.

So essentially someone had gone through and said, Yeah, hypothetically, here's how aerodynamics works and here's all the numbers and the math.

Jessi
Like the theoretical physics of it all.

James
Because no one had ever flown, so they didn't really know.

Jessi
Well I mean you could study birds and other things that flies.

James
Yeah, which that is honestly that was primarily what they did. Look at birds, they're amazing. Look at this like the thrust to weight ratio.

It's unreal. Sure. And but there were some people where they'd publish all these tables and so they got their hands on them.

They they reached out to I think it was a Smithsonian and like, hey, can you send us all this information? They're like, yeah, sure. Here you go.

And they got 'em and very quickly were like, oh, these are wrong. 'Cause they would just try 'em and were like, Oh, it d it didn't work. This isn't yeah.

'Cause when they were just trying to do it on their own, it flew better than when they tried to do the official calculations. So they were like, hmm, scrap that. They built their own wind tunnel, started doing their like little wind tunnel.

Sure. Um started doing their own experiments. They were like, we're gonna figure out what our own numbers are.

And And it was like, and then they would publish stuff and share it with other people or they got invited to go talk and they're like, yeah, sure, here's all their stuff, whatever. Because again, they weren't trying to hoard it for themselves. They're like, this is interesting.

Here's what we've learned.

Jessi
And like crazy foundational and informative scientists than business people.

James
I think that's I think that's a fair way to say it for sure. And um Yeah, they tested 38 different wing designs um before flying them. And um yeah, and I just think that's it's uh It's somehow you gotta like you gotta figure out that signal versus noise ratio.

Like what's this like, ah, there's just a bunch of information here. It's either not relevant or not right versus this is what's true, that's what's good, which As an investor is really, really hard to do sometimes because oftentimes like not like you just the information you have is the best that it is And and sometimes the best way to go about it is just looking for inconsistencies on it. Like, huh, what are these numbers like?

Oh, they said this. But now they're doing this and or this doesn't line up or something like that. Sometimes it's just a lot of omissions of stuff.

Like excuse me. I looked at a at an investor deck um relatively recently and I got done and was like, man, it's just really light on details. There's like not a lot of financial information here.

It would be really good to have. And I was like Maybe it's just their initial pitch deck and they're just trying to see if you're interested. But it's like, I don't like there's no actual information here for me to be interested in.

Yeah. And so um so anyways, it's finding that like But they had a lot of bunch bunch of information out there. It was also really weird where at one point, here's the inconsistency.

It talked about how like, oh, we got this team with a ton of experience, and then you got to the bottom deck and it was one guy. And like, huh? Yeah, exactly.

Like, so is this a team? Or is it a him? Well what's going on?

And so it's just trying to um again kind of parse out that the differences there. Um yeah. What can you rely on and what can you not rely on.

Jessi
That's super interesting that they had Essentially this great source of data, you know, from the Smithsonian, you would think that it was tested and vetted and but there was, I mean, they couldn't because they they didn't know how to actually find it.

James
It was generally accepted, like, oh, this is probably right.

Jessi
Sure. But it wasn't fully tested out. And so to be like, hmm, okay, let's uh let's actually look into this. That's Well in all fairness, like NASA, when they first started sending rockets, at first they were like

James
There's the math. Yeah. I don't know.

We can't try it until we try it, but we feel pretty good about this and they had double people people double check and stuff like that. So And that's that's the weird part about flying, right? Like you just kind of like you gotta do some math up front.

And that's true with investing too, right? Like, hey, we've done the business model. We think expenses will be this, we think things will rent for this, we think the rehab will be that.

There's a lot of guessing up front. And you use a lot of what you've learned to get there. Which is why track records are important.

Because if you have like an investor with like, I've never done this before. Here we go. Right.

It's like Okay. I had that once I was actually, I was looking at a deal in Ohio. Actually.

And um and I've and and it was it was this guy's first syndication and he was spending more money on the rehab than he was on the purchase of the property, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it was his first time ever doing it. And then the other thing that made me kind of like, I don't know about this was he his he had partnered with another guy to do the construction for it.

And so it was his friend had the construction budget for his new construction company. And that's where I was like, there's a lot of new here. Like that's like you don't have a lot of that prior history to inform this stuff going forward.

Yeah. And so that's where things get a little confusing and in their case they're like yeah no no one's ever done this before we gotta figure it out so that's where they started doing the test themselves and figuring out and do little experiments and then go from there. Yeah.

So you want to look for a sponsor who that's kind of how they rolled. Like, yeah, I've done smaller deals, I've got some experience. I've maybe done a bunch with my own money.

Sure. And now I'm moving into bigger, more complicated, more whatever. You know?

Yeah, it's proven. Yeah. Yeah.

Um Okay, I think so I'm I'm trying to decide the best way I want to set this up. So here's what's crazy. They did it.

They flew. Their very first flight was only 12 seconds. Yep.

Like that was it. Pretty quick. And then they kind of got they trashed the flyer.

Um because some wind got a hold of it. Oops. And so it doesn't it's not around anymore.

But they built another one and they did a ton of flights. And guess what? Nobody believed them.

Jessi
What?

James
Yep. Because it was just the two of them. Yeah.

Jessi
Didn't they have like people from the city like that?

James
They had a guy who took a picture, but they were like The equivalent of shopped. Like just and they they had they had some people on the community, but like no reporters showed up because again they weren't selling it. Whereas there was a ton of reporters for that massive failure one. And that that part of there was just like Well, we saw this other massive failure. It clearly can't happen.

Jessi
That's crazy.

James
I know. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

For five years. People were just like They even had a point where they were like, and they're like super weird rumors were happening, like they had uh their flyer three, mm-hmm, and they were flying all over the place Just like getting after it. But reporters somehow word got out like that they didn't like reporters and they were gonna shoot them if they got close.

Oh my word. Which they were like No, we were busy, but like no, we're not against reporters. And so they were all from a distance.

Oh my word. So they couldn't really see And like could talk to him, couldn't figure it out.

Jessi
World, sometimes like media and misinformation.

James
Right?

Jessi
Wow.

James
Yeah, so like even the even the Dayton editor who was like who was there? He was like, Yeah, none of us really believed it. Just not a thing.

Jessi
That's wild.

James
But here's the deal. They just kept doing it. They kept working.

They weren't in it for the notoriety. They didn't care And oddly enough, it didn't bother them that no one believed them. Because they're like, no, we know we did it.

It's all good. And and so that's why You want to look for that operator who is a balance, right? You want the one who's like, yeah, I don't care what everybody says.

Jessi
Sure.

James
I'm not worried about that. I'm gonna keep moving, keep plotting along. But at the same time, you gotta be like, what if everyone's saying like this guy's a liar?

Like you gotta like, it's that weird balance of finding it, which is just hard because again, no one believed them. And I'm gonna roll right into the next one because It was at Le Mans, 1908. Again, we're talking five years later, where they, so Le Mans is in France, and that was ultimately Wilbur went to France and they shipped over the flyer.

Okay. And they're because 'cause it you know, they did it and they're like, hey US, you're interested in buying a plane? And they're like, We don't believe you did it.

No. Like, okay. And then somehow like France was like, we're very interested. We would like to see this thing before it happens first, but yes, we are very interested.

And so Wilbur went to France, kind of like took the tour, saw everything. He was way into the architecture and learned about all this stuff. And and um Orville was back home.

Packaged everything up, got it going. And um and then he picked like he was like, oh here's the place where I'm where I'm gonna fly, it makes sense. And then he got all the crates and everything and customs had just torn through it all.

Just Ripped it all out, didn't know what it was. And he was just like, I have to build this thing from scratch, essentially, without my brother's help. Oh my and I mean we're talking like Again, these aren't exactly off-the-shelf parts.

Right. No, it's like custom fabric. He rebuilt the engine and the blades and the wings and all the controls and the cabling.

And it was so precise, he he didn't trust anybody else to do it. And he didn't speak the language either. And so he would try to describe to people, like, give me that screwdriver like they didn't understand.

So he just did it himself. And what they said was remarkable about him is people were like, when are you gonna fly? When are you gonna fly?

He's like, when I'm done. When I'm ready. He never felt that pressure to just go fast or perform despite what all the newspapers were saying.

And there were even other pilots who had done flights at this point. Yeah. But again, like They'd gone up and gone down, you know, had been in the air for a couple seconds, had maybe started doing a turn, you know, that kind of thing.

And and again, like the the newspaper's just like These Rhett brothers are liar brothers, you know, just really slandered him. He felt zero pressure. So finally he was like, all right.

Plane's ready. I'm gonna do it. And there was a crowd.

Oh, some of them were those pilots who showed up. We're like, man, I am pumped to see him fail and prove that I'm right. So he he um so at the time um they had like a I don't know what you want to call it um almost like a catapult Kind of.

Okay. Like a skid. So they've got it.

Yeah. So what they do is they've got um it it's kind of a it like it goes down it like it it gets it moving fast uh at the beginning and it's got like a a weight that spins. Okay.

And so you position it up. You tighten up the weight, you let go of the weight, it spins, and it kind of throws the plane forward. Just gets it, gets it started.

Sure. And um so he does that, goes up, banks. circles, goes back around, and lands back where he essentially took off.

And I mean like honestly, I cried. This part of the book because it was like people were like, Are you kidding me? He just did that.

Um, one of them, there was this one pilot, he was like, Well, we are beaten. They definitely did it. Another pilot was like, wow, Wright has us all in his hands.

Damn. Like they instantly. And I mean he was in the air for it was like a couple minutes.

Yeah. And the instantly reverse course, they were like, this guy's amazing. This is unbelievable.

I've never seen this before. And and to me, the crazy part is like He had to rebuild this thing from scratch. This was his first flight in front of everybody.

He's like, he didn't know if it was actually gonna work outside of they'd done a bunch of flying in Dayton. And he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jessi
I'm just rebuilding what we've already done. Wild to me that like They had done all the flying. It just wasn't trusted or known about. Yeah. So like when you have the right champions on your side, like It completely flips the story of like who you are and Oh yeah.

James
And it got it got to a point where it was like, you know Again, after that first day, it was like thousands of people showed up. This is magic. And uh kings started showing up because they're like, we want to see this.

like all sorts of dignitaries and and he was even like that which is pretty cool about it was like yeah cool nice to meet you like didn't get wigged out um Yeah. And then eventually, because he had two seats, he started taking people out for rides. And 'cause part of well, 'cause part of also what what France has said is like, well Obviously we can't hire you to fly it, so we gotta be able to teach other people.

So we started teaching other people how to fly the airplane, which is a few years ago.

Jessi
Why did France want the airplane

James
They wanted air superiority if just in case there was a war, you know, something in fifteen years. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, great. Protect themselves against those Germans and Italians and whatever's, yeah.

Jessi
Who knew?

James
Oh, dude. It was yeah, pretty wild. So he um so yeah, that was uh What a it was what's an awesome moment, right?

Where he's just like, I don't know, you think about that poise under pressure. Yeah. Just unreal.

Just calm and cool. Turns out he was actually a really good public speaker. Just very because he had that like he was just natural, whatever, and was willing to talk with all sorts of people.

And once he'd done that first flight and people like, oh okay. He was like, Yeah, come check it out. Come see it.

I'll tell you everything. Here's how it works. There's no secrets here.

Yeah. Here's how it works. And part of that is because of the second or the third lesson, I guess, that I learned about it, which is it's the pilot, not the plane.

Thanks, Top Gun, for stealing that one. One of their themes. Um so uh One of the things that they quickly learned was that learning to fly is a skill.

Like there's there's multiple things that you have to balance all at once and doing the rudders and the wings and getting the speed and like all the things. Like it took coordination. Part of it's like they owned a bicycle shop and they were good at that kind of coordination type of stuff apparently.

And and then they they kept making designs to make it easier. Because one point time they're like Why are we moving this entire back wing? Let's just make a little thing and you know it'll it'll work better.

Jessi
Okay.

James
Um, you know, which was good. What was the other one? Um Wilbur had this, it was really interesting.

He eventually figured out how to like just take off from the ground to not use the catapult thing anymore. Oh, like with the engine. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just cool. So first one to do that. Yeah.

They said I mean it's it's ridiculous all the records that they said, right? I mean they were the first ones doing it and no one else was close. And then at one point in time they were like, hey, do you want us to clear the field for you?

He was like, no. Airplanes should be able to take off and land anywhere. Like that's how flexible they should be. Whoa.

And I mean, and he would like, they would go up and eventually he was flying for a couple hours just out there doing stuff, seeing things. Yeah. His eventually, um So he did that.

Then the US is like, all right, this is pretty cool. Tell us more. So Orville, then he's working on their next plane or whatever.

He takes that to DC and he's like, all right, man, your turn to fly. They weren't he wasn't quite as cool and calm as Wilbur, but like still did it and similar deal, right? Just took it up, flew it around, landed, and people were just like This is unreal.

Are you kidding me? I mean I I'm trying to like I don't know what a modern day equivalent is. I think it's it it might be similar to like the very first time you use like chat GPT or an LLM and it starts responding to you, you're like Well this is kind of magical.

How is this working? I get kind of had a bit of that feel, but like I don't I'm like I'm trying to think of was something where we're like this is impossible And yet it's happening. Like borderline, like someone's like, I came back in time.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
Did you though? You know what I mean? It's like that kind of that's not a thing. Physics that way.

Jessi
If you think of the first The first cell phone. So it's not that anymore. Yeah.

But that I that idea of like, wait, I can talk to someone across the world? Yeah. It's happening right now.

James
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, totally. Yeah.

It's pretty wild. I'm just trying to think like what's something what today we would just go. That's not can't do it.

Jessi
Looking like robots or Yeah, something pretty wild.

James
So in nineteen oh eight, I think. Um so same year, I guess. Uh yeah, so Orville Was up flying.

He'd taken another guy to go fly with him so he could show it to him. Something happened in the process and the plane just ended up nosediving into the ground. Oh my gosh.

Um The passenger ended up dying like on the spot and Orville was intensive care. Like couldn't walk, broke his legs. One of his legs ended up being the wrong height.

Um Or you know, it was shorter, I guess, because of however it worked and like really shaken and is they have a sister. So it was the dad, the bishop is what they called him. And then they had a sister and then Those two.

And his sister took care of him, brought him home, like was by his side, nursed him back to health. She has she got a lot of credit for like she was she was a huge influence in in everything that they did. Super sad.

And then there was, you know, just kind of this question of like, will he ever fly again? You know, which again, the pilot is just as important if if not more, than the plane itself, like having a skill. And um Wilbur kept Wilbur kept flying, but it was kind of like, oh, okay.

Eventually he comes back, then they all go to um they all go to France, the three of them, and cause she's so kind of helping out like he's he's shaky. He didn't fly at all well in France. Eventually he felt good enough where Washington was like, no, we're ready for like another example thing.

And Orvo was like, I'm doing it. And you know, Wilbur's like, yep, I get it. They had a rule.

The two of them never flew together. Like because of this particular thing. It's too risky.

Yeah, which is crazy. Um Wilbur took his sister up in the plane. Um and she was like, I I think she was the first woman to ever fly.

Whoa. If I remember correctly. What was her name?

Dude. Oh, dude. Why would I knew you were gonna ask me that and I don't remember.

Miss Wright. I'm such a I'm such a Male. Um yeah, uh yeah, she was the first woman.

Um and then other ladies went up, other guys. Yeah, it was really cool. Um But yeah, it was uh it was pretty neat.

I would say too um their final flight, they flew together. And and everyone was like That was kind of their like, we did it, we're good. And um, I mean again, it they've yes, they did get famous and reporters.

Jessi
Did they crash in the final four? No, no, no, no. Okay, good.

James
No.

Jessi
I was like, wait, I don't really know the ending of the city.

James
Yeah, no. So what they ended up doing was they then started up a it was like the right flyer company or something like that. And Wilbur Ran the business very stressful, ended up dying like mid 40s, pretty early on. And then Orville lived very like into his 80s, ripe old age and Lived well and like yeah, had a full life.

Because he lived into his eighties, he got to see World War Two. Right? 'Cause I think At least the start of it.

Mm-hmm. That sounds right to me. He definitely saw World War I. I think they both saw World War One.

But it was in World War II where he was like, oh, what do we create? Yeah, yeah.

Jessi
That's what that's where my thought was was like They created this just for the novelty or or the the amazingness of being able to fly.

James
Uh-huh.

Jessi
Not for the use of weapons or bombs.

James
You know, and ultimately they're like, yeah, I get it. Like there's just tools that can be used for good or for bad. I get it.

And ultimately they, you know, they did a lot of good transporting people around. Yeah. I think it'd be amazed to see what's going on today with like rockets and all that stuff.

Jessi
They'd be like, that was a man. So crazy.

James
Yeah. Super cool.

Jessi
They'd write geek out on the aerodynamics.

James
Dang.

Jessi
Slight math.

James
Dude, right? I I think they would get a kick out of just how much like computers drive all the math and how precise things are. Like what?

Like autopilot? They're like, what? Yeah, uh Orville got to see jets be invented and he was like, those are cool.

That's cool. I like that. Um we were trying that's the thing.

Like they had this this awesome attitude of they didn't nobody I don't want to say it. In order for them to win, it didn't mean that everybody else had to lose. Yeah.

That's not what they were into. They were like, we just think this is cool. We want to figure out how to do it and we want as many other people to enjoy what we're doing as well.

Yeah. I genuinely had that posture.

Jessi
If other people took it and and made it to the next level, they'd be like, cool, that's great. Yeah.

James
Now obviously there were patent disputes because other people tried to copy their designs exactly and they're like, hmm, like Add to it, don't just like copy us. So like that was a whole thing. Um, but yeah, for the most part, they're like, man, flying's awesome.

Like more people should do it. It was cool. So there's real estate lessons in there, I'm sure.

Um which is I guess uh it's When you're evaluating a deal, it's not just the deal. It's the person running the deal, that operator. And and I know we talk about this a lot, but it's that important.

It's like, yeah, how good is this person who's doing it? Because if you had the wrong fire. It could still crash and burn on you.

And so you just want to make sure it's the right person. There you go. That's your listen.

Um Yeah, so uh bunch of things to ask when you're doing it. So asking does the operator do they run their own numbers? Mm-hmm.

Or are they relying on other people to do it? I think this is really important, especially 'cause sometimes You have fun people who are raising the money and then you have people who are actually doing it. And I've been asked to raise funds for other projects in the past.

Because like, hey, you got investors? Like you should do it. And every time I'm like, oh, let me see the deal.

And the few times I've looked into them like, yeah, that's not quite 'Cause like I want to run the numbers. Yeah. And so that's important.

You want to like, did they run it? Whoever's asking you to to invest. Um, let's see.

And then Were they doing this before anyone else was watching? I think is important.

Jessi
Um oh like they're not just investing 'Cause it looks cool and I think and I think that's a weird that's a weird balance.

James
Like I will see this where There's some other big time investor. He goes, I got a course that we're doing. Come join it.

And you know, he talks about all the money he's making and how great life is and you know, whatever. And you're like, I want that. So you get into it for that end piece.

And and I think it's one of those where you're like, huh, how do you ideally you find that person's like, no, this is fun. Borderline if it was break even, I would still do it. Yeah.

You know, which I'm I'm not in that camp, but um uh I do want to make money. But I do enjoy it. And that was like and for us, right?

We bought our first duplex and like that was we were off to the races and kind of do it. And I made it I mean, I was interested in this in seventh grade when people were definitely not watching. And so um Oh, you that's the kind of person who you want to invest with.

Like, no, they like this. They're in it for the long haul just because they enjoy it. Just inherently it's fun.

Yeah. Not just, hey, I'm chasing after the money. I think is important.

And um and again, you just want to you want to grade the pilot as well, not just the deck and um what's going on. So um so there you go. Uh Trying to think if I got a question for you before I ask everybody else.

I don't know if I do. Um so I'm gonna ask, I'll ask you this, I guess. And everyone else, you can answer this at home, which is are you backing the best machine or the best pilot?

Interesting. Yeah. Are you backing?

Jessi
Ideally both, but Yeah, yeah, yeah.

James
I like to think you got a pretty good pilot. Pilot's pretty awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But yeah, but that's the thing to ask, right? Yeah. Um yeah, you want to make sure that you So anyways, that's the Rhett Brothers.

Super cool story. I want to read the book. Oh man, it was a big thing.

I was like, there's gotta be a movie about this, right? Like this seems like a thing.

Jessi
There's gotta be.

James
I mean, especially with the whole the drama of they did it, you have this peak of a moment and then no one believes you. It's like, oh my gosh. Like no. And then and then to have the like that triumphant like they did it, like they did what you want in the movie, which is you got all the naysayers, he can't do it, and he shows up and rocks it.

Like, yes, it's so cathartic. I love it Oh, it was so good. It's like it's fairy tale.

So I'm like, that's gotta be a it's gotta be a story. It's gotta be something. I feel like I haven't I haven't even looked, but I'm like, it's gotta be.

Highly recommend it. Right out there with Lewis and Clark. Also just amazing.

Lewis Clark is a lot longer, so keep that in mind. Um but it's good. Their journey was a little bit longer too.

So um so it's all good. And they had copious

Jessi
Lewis and Clark had copious journals, which was I would imagine the Wright brothers had something.

James
Uh they did have some notes. There's a lot of most of it actually came from them writing letters back and forth between each other. When they're not going to be able to do that, especially when they were stuffed.

But yeah, and they kept some notes on their um on the experiments that they were running so they could trick keep track of stuff. And obviously they're After become famous, a lot of people want to know their life story and what was going on. They were happy to share.

So that's where we have a lot of that information from them. But yeah, no, Lewis and Clark were like everyday journaling. Sure.

Here's what we found. Check this out. Oh cool.

Yeah. So we do it. All right.

So, um, if you'd like to learn what it's like to fly with us, uh you can check us out at Furlo.com. And so with that, thanks for listening.

Have a great day.