A pilot describes running air show demonstrations for foreign militaries and recalls being stationed at a Pakistani base during India-Pakistan tensions, where surveillance drones circled the airfield at night. When a colleague mentions Lycoming engines, he connects it to potential military applications and decides the conversation is too sensitive to continue on record.
I did a program. I was helping the foreign air forces with air shows. So absolutely not a weapon. There was really no way to use it as a weapon, but you know, whatever, everything can be used as a weapon, but it was pretty far from being a weapon. I had to travel a lot and I would end up at foreign military bases. And I was at a base in Pakistan during the conflict with India. So they've got guys sitting on the line in the ready rooms, jets are spooled up, ready to go. And so what would happen is they would pick up a flight of Indian aircraft running at the border, and then they would be running out after them. The day I left, they raised it yet again to no Americans should go to Pakistan. If you're going to be in Pakistan, don't be anywhere near a military base. If you're going to be in a military base, no base with flying.
I'm in danger.
Um, so I'm in this base, and at night you can hear these drones orbiting overhead, right? They're defending the space, which, you know, this was a few years ago, but drones were— and, but I hadn't experienced that, like a drone that's surveilling, and like, I think it's my drone, but like, I don't know. I had a, like an armed guard outside of my little, like they gave me captain's quarters. I had like an armed guard outside to make sure that I was safe. I'm in a meeting and because of my background, I'm like, you're just sitting across the table. There's like a bunch of cool dudes and we're like hanging out. And this guy's like, do you know anything about Lycoming engines?
Lycoming. They originally produced sewing machines.
And I was like, I was like, yeah, I do know about Lycoming engines. And he was like, have you ever had a problem like this? And I was like, Show me a picture. And he's like, show me pictures.
And I'm thinking about it.
I'm thinking like, oh, and like, it wasn't, if I hadn't heard the drone the night before, it wouldn't have clicked for me. Like for some reason, because of my background with little airplanes, when I heard Lycoming, I heard like, oh, this guy's building an airplane in his garage. Like it didn't click that like, no, we're talking about a drone. And then I'm in Pakistan, like, like absolutely could be military use. And I was like, eh, maybe we don't need to talk. And I'm like, why don't you email me?
We'll talk about it later. Um, we'll take that offline. Take that offline.
Right.
