Legendary Captain

Chapter 166 A Prophecy Come True

"Did it rain last night? The air feels so humid!" Captain Li Zhiming got out of the car and onto the tarmac. Breathing in the slightly chilly air, especially after noticing the specks of water on the ground, he yawned. "What's the temperature on the report?"

Xu Xian recalled briefly: "Twelve degrees! Bro, it shouldn't freeze. This is already the coldest time of day."

This flight is scheduled to depart at 6:40 AM, which is quite early. According to regulations, the crew must arrive at the aircraft an hour before takeoff, and it's only 5:30 AM now. The coldest time of day is usually around 4 or 5 PM. If the temperature is above 10 degrees Celsius at that time, icing is generally not a problem.

Xu Xian was quite perceptive; even without Captain Li Zhiming explaining his intentions, Xu Xian could basically guess them. To be honest, it's relatively easy to guess the thoughts of new captains; their behavior hasn't completely detached them from the co-pilot role, making them seem overly cautious compared to seasoned captains.

"Really?" Li Zhiming was clearly not entirely convinced by Xu Xian's words. After arriving at the foot of the plane, he didn't immediately board it but instead went to the flight case to find a reflective vest, intending to check it himself.

Xu Xian didn't mind Li Zhiming's hands-on approach. He figured the captain wanted to take on more responsibilities so he could relax more, so why not?

Xu Xian waited for the flight crew at the bottom of the corridor stairs. When Xia Qing came over, he quietly told her, "Go up and grill the food. Once you're ready, tell the ground staff that you're boarding normally. If the ground staff says there's flow control, we'll decide after we go up."

Generally speaking, ground service personnel at many airports are very well-informed about flight flow control. Sometimes, they even know about it before the flight crew does.

However, flights that depart as early as 6 AM are generally not subject to flow control unless there are special circumstances. Who would normally restrict passenger flow so early in the morning?

"Shouldn't you ask the captain?" Xia Qing asked, looking at the captain who was already wearing a reflective vest, holding a flashlight, and preparing to go under the plane for a thorough inspection. "Did the captain just tell you, or did you make this decision on your own?"

"A new captain, you know, tends to meddle in everything, so you're bound to miss things. As the co-pilot, you should share some of the less important tasks with the captain." Xu Xian spoke very casually to Xia Qing, even cracking a few jokes: "Go on board, just listen to me. Later, I'll ask the captain if anything seems amiss, and I'll text you. Keep an eye on your phone; don't turn it off or silence it, understand?"

"I understand!" Xia Qing deliberately drew out her voice, sounding somewhat coquettish.

Xu Xian was quite pleased and smiled even more happily: "I understand, then go up obediently."

"Got it." Xia Qing winked at Xu Xian and followed the flight crew with a smile.

When Xia Qing caught up, she was already the last member of the flight attendant team. After she climbed the ladder to the jet bridge, she found that the flight attendants ahead of her had not gone to the cabin first.

"W-what's wrong?" Xia Qing closed the stairwell door, wondering why the other flight attendants were crowding at the cabin door instead of going in.

The flight attendant bypassed everyone and approached Xia Qing directly: "What's your relationship with the co-pilot?"

Xia Qing was caught off guard and found that the other flight attendants were also looking at her, some out of curiosity, and some simply because they were following the lead of the flight attendant.

"Um, we're... in a relationship." Xia Qing thought for a moment and decided to tell the truth. Anyway, it's not unusual for flight attendants and pilots to be together.

"Just as I expected, I could tell from your behavior and expressions." The flight attendant's expression remained calm, as if she had already guessed it. However, judging from the intimate way Xu Xian and Xia Qing were acting, anyone with a little discernment could basically understand the relationship between Xu Xian and Xia Qing.

Although dating Xu Xian isn't anything shameful, I still felt a little embarrassed to discuss my personal relationship in front of so many colleagues.

The flight attendant maintained her icy expression: "Don't think you can slack off just because your boyfriend is the co-pilot on this flight. If you do anything wrong, don't blame me for scolding you in front of your boyfriend. If you're embarrassed afterwards, don't blame me."

The reason the purser said this is because it's true that some flight attendants have boyfriends or husbands who are co-pilots or even captains. These flight attendants are usually alright, but when they're on a flight with their boyfriends or husbands, they become arrogant and overbearing. Most of the time, as long as they don't go too far, the purser will let it slide for the sake of the flight crew.

However, it was clear that the flight attendant on this flight was not one to tolerate people. Upon discovering that Xu Xian and Xia Qing were in a romantic relationship, she immediately gave Xia Qing a heads-up to prevent her from criticizing him on the crew bus after landing, which would make everyone lose face.

Xia Qing had heard about some flight attendants who weren't very professional, so she understood what the purser was thinking and immediately assured her, "Purser, I know."

"Okay, that's good." The flight attendant didn't press the matter, but gave Xia Qing a meaningful look: "Although you're all young and healthy, you still need to take care of yourselves. I don't care normally, but now that you're on duty, shouldn't you be a little more careful?"

"Restraint?" Xia Qing's pretty face turned bright red, while her colleagues around her burst into laughter: "Chief flight attendant, you've misunderstood, we didn't."

"What do you mean, 'nothing'?" the flight attendant said. "Look at how listless our co-pilot looks, he must have had a terrible time. Even if he's young, you still need to be careful."

After the flight attendant finished speaking, she gave Xia Qing a knowing smile and led the group of delighted flight attendants towards the cabin. Before leaving, she asked Xia Qing, "What were you two whispering about? Was it related to work?"

Xia Qing quickly followed up: "Yes, yes, please let us in as normal."

Below the plane, Xu Xian put on his reflective vest and quickly caught up with Li Zhiming. As he approached, Xu Xian asked, "Captain, the weather in Jiangcheng is good, and there's no dangerous weather along the route. So, should we add the fuel as per the clearance?"

"Okay, just add the release order." Li Zhiming didn't even turn his head, still concentrating on inspecting the plane, looking incredibly dedicated.

Xu Xian glanced at the oil tanker approaching from a distance, followed closely behind Li Zhiming, and said, "I'll have the crew go up and grill the food. Once everything is ready, we can board passengers as normal."

"Hmm!" Li Zhiming still stared intently at the machine, showing that he didn't care much about these trivial matters.

After checking the landing gear, Li Zhiming straightened up and happened to see the refueling truck approaching. He nudged Xu Xian beside him and said, "You go ahead and get on. I'll watch the refueling."

At this moment, the air outside was still cool, and Xu Xian's mind was a little unclear. He even planned to let the cold air blow on him while he was refueling to clear his head.

However, Captain Li Zhiming clearly wanted to oversee every safety aspect, even the refueling process.

Xu Xian didn't leave. He went back to where he had put the flight case, picked it up, and went up the walkway.

As soon as Xu Xian entered the cabin, flight attendant number three greeted him: "Brother, breakfast is ready."

"So fast?" Xu Xian asked in surprise.

Flight attendant number three smiled and said, "The in-flight meals arrived exceptionally early this time. The catering chef was already waiting for us when we boarded."

"So much enthusiasm for work?" Xu Xian crawled into the cabin, looked at the back of the passenger cabin, first carried the suitcase into the cockpit, then freed his hands to take the breakfast tray.

But when breakfast was closer, Xu Xian smelled a smell similar to that of food heated in a microwave, which made his stomach churn and gave him a sudden feeling of nausea.

"What's wrong, bro?" Seeing Xu Xian's reaction, flight attendant number three even leaned closer to smell the breakfast to see if there was any strange smell. However, she couldn't find anything particularly strange after careful examination.

Xu Xian patted his chest to calm himself, then pointed to one of the food boxes: "Is this porridge?"

Flight attendant number three lifted a corner of the foil and confirmed, "Yes, this is porridge."

Xu Xian accepted the food box containing the porridge separately, and casually took the side dishes next to it: "I'll just have the porridge, you can take the rest."

"Brother, are you feeling unwell?" Flight attendant number three asked with concern. "There's not much porridge left here."

The food container for the porridge was only about the size of a palm, and the portion was small; it wouldn't be enough to fill a normal adult. Therefore, the crew's breakfast included porridge, noodles, and steamed buns. Drinking only porridge would probably only last an hour or two.

Xu Xian rubbed his forehead: "Never mind, this will do."

"Are you sure you don't need to?" Flight attendant number three confirmed.

Xu Xian waved his hand: "Take it back. I'm not feeling well, so I'll just have some porridge."

"Oh," Flight Attendant No. 3 said, taking back the meal tray and glancing back at Xu Xian's retreating figure as he entered the cockpit. Just then, the chief flight attendant came to the front cabin.

Flight attendant number three pulled the head flight attendant aside and whispered, "Sister, the co-pilot seems to be feeling unwell. He only had porridge for breakfast, and I had to take the rest of his food back."

The flight attendant glanced at the tray of food being carried by flight attendant number three and scoffed, "Are all young people these days having this much fun?"

At this moment, flight attendant number three took out her phone, opened her WeChat Moments, and handed it to the chief flight attendant: "Sister, look, you're having a lot of fun."

It turned out that besides Xu Xian and Xia Qing, there was also a colleague that Xia Qing was relatively familiar with that day. The atmosphere was very lively, and Xia Qing's colleague took some photos and posted them on WeChat Moments.

The flight attendants' circle is small; they're basically all friends on social media, and the photos they took together are still available.

"Why worry about what others are doing? Get back to work!" The flight attendant stopped the third flight attendant's gossipy impulse: "From now on, when you're working, don't keep talking about random things."

Xu Xian quickly finished the small amount of porridge, then asked the flight attendant to put it away before starting preparations for the cockpit.

Good morning!

As Xu Xian was preparing the cockpit, he heard a call from behind. Xu Xian thought it was Captain Li Zhiming coming up with the fuel, but when he turned around, he found it was the maintenance crew.

"Good morning!" Without the maintenance staff needing to explain, Xu Xian turned on the SYD's lower DU display so that the maintenance staff could check the hydraulic system.

"Thank you!" the maintenance worker said, then buried himself in recording some data.

"Is it done?" Xu Xian asked.

"alright!"

Xu Xian checked that the maintenance personnel had finished recording, then switched the DU page back to the ENG page and asked them to continue recording.

"Didn't you find any ice buildup on the aircraft during the inspection?" Xu Xian asked the maintenance crew while making preparations.

Checking for ice buildup on the aircraft is also one of the responsibilities of the maintenance crew, and their recommendations are an extremely important reference for the crew's judgment.

"No! The weather's warm." The maintenance worker finished recording the information and poked at the spot behind Xu Xian's seat: "The latch is inside. You can check it yourselves."

"Yeah, I saw it!" Xu Xian replied.

At this moment, Captain Li Zhiming came aboard and, seeing the maintenance crew working at the cockpit entrance, patted them on the shoulder. Reminded by the captain, the maintenance crew member quickly came out to make way for him.

Li Zhiming put down his suitcase and plopped down. Xu Xianlian asked, "Brother, is breakfast ready? Should I bring it in for you on the 3rd?"

"Oh, okay!" Li Zhiming was still taking off his reflective vest when he heard Xu Xian ask him. He turned his head and glanced at Xu Xian: "Are you really okay? You don't look well."

"Is it obvious?" Xu Xian touched his face.

Li Zhiming nodded honestly: "It's obvious."

"Take a nap while the plane is cruising," Li Zhiming said.

He wasn't particularly concerned about Xu Xian. It was just a given that Xu Xian wasn't in good condition, so he could only let Xu Xian rest during the cruise to prevent him from faltering during the critical approach phase.

"Isn't that unnecessary?" Xu Xian was still a little embarrassed.

Li Zhiming shook his head: "It's very necessary."

"Captain, the aircraft has been inspected and everything is fine. We need you to sign this." The maintenance worker handed the maintenance logbook to Li Zhiming.

When Li Zhiming was signing the papers, he asked the maintenance crew, "Is 5130 going to be given to the cargo airline?"

5130 is the flight number of the plane they flew today.

"Yeah! I guess it'll be another two months," the maintenance crew confirmed.

Aircraft 5130 was one of Xingyou Airlines' earliest aircraft and is now very old. Therefore, the company decided to return 5130 and send it to one of the group's cargo airlines to be used as a freighter. Converting old passenger planes into freighters is a very common practice.

"It's time to retire; the aircraft's thrust is decreasing too drastically," Captain Li Zhiming said softly.

Star Travel Aviation Operations Control Center.

Even though it was only a little before seven o'clock and the sky outside was not fully light, the entire operations control center was already full of people, with all the middle and senior management members present.

There was no other way; all the top leaders of the entire group had come, and the leaders of the subsidiaries had to accompany them as well.

Accompanied by Yang Ning, Wen Jingshu listened to the company's technical staff explain the emergency communication system.

"We've connected to the air traffic control's communication system, enabling seamless communication between the crew, air traffic control, and operations control during special times. We've also modified the transmitter of the communication system. There's a switch in both the cockpit and operations control center, allowing the crew to communicate without pressing a transmit button. The communication system automatically recognizes voices in the cockpit; as long as the crew speaks, the call can be transmitted without pressing the transmit button," said a staff member from the technical department.

This design is intended to prevent situations where, in an emergency, the crew wants to communicate but doesn't have time to press the transmit button. Of course, this function shouldn't be misused, as it can easily cause communication congestion.

Because the volume reception threshold is very low, basically anything the crew says can be transmitted. This means that many things that weren't intended to be transmitted will be transmitted, thus occupying the communication frequency for extended periods.

So, the question is, how do we identify an emergency?

Sometimes emergencies occur very suddenly, and the crew doesn't have time to activate the automatic communication function. In these situations, the operations control center needs to provide assistance.

"We monitor all the critical parameters of aircraft in flight, such as the power system! If any aircraft in flight experiences an engine failure, we will know immediately. We can activate the automatic communication function on our end, depending on the situation."

"Chairman, our screen here displays the flight numbers of all currently flying flights." A staff member from the technical department pointed to a screen on the control panel, which was covered with a dense array of flight numbers, each representing a currently flying flight.

This air-to-ground monitoring logic displays the new flight number once the aircraft takes off, and disappears once the aircraft lands.

"We can not only monitor which flight has a problem, but also roughly show which aircraft parameters are malfunctioning, thus identifying the type of fault," the staff member said with some pride. He was the one who developed this system, and being able to show his face to the chairman meant he had a very promising future.

"Chairman, let me demonstrate for you!" The staff member prepared to simulate an emergency. But when he turned around to operate the device, his face instantly turned pale with shock.

At some point, the font color of a flight number on the screen turned red!

(End of this chapter)