I recently was hired to fly jumpers in a place that's sunny all year. Flying a lot of hours and planning to stay here for a few months. So first week on the job this happens:

I dip my tanks before the last load of the day and I have about 10 gallons in the right tank (plus 10 in the left that we only use as a reserve) which is plenty to turn a load to full altitude in this particular airplane. I had been averaging about a 6-7 gallon burn per load before this but it was the first time i had taken off with under 15 gallons in the right tank. So I start up, taxi, take off, then at about 500 ft AGL I hear for the first time what it sounds like to run out of gas. I was able to flip the aux fuel pump and switch tanks before it completely quit but it freaked out all the skydivers. I finished the load on the left tank.

When the owner found out he was not pleased... he fired me on the spot. Before leaving, even though I was no longer an employee at that point I went to re fuel the plane. Just for the hell of it I dipped the right dry tank... it was bone dry, and so was the left tank. Apparently I was only seconds away from dead sticking it in. I couldn't believe it, I knew there was no way I could have burned up that much gas, so with the tanks dry I checked the wooden dip stick I had been using the last two weeks against the fuel counter on the pump. At 10 gallons on the fuel counter I checked the dipstick... dipstick read close to 20 gallons. Turns out the dipstick was way off. The owner was the one who gave me this dipstick and told me it was for this airplane. When I showed him the mismarkings he re-hired me. Moral of the story is don't trust anyone else's dipstick. Well, you can but I never will again.