Legendary Captain

Chapter 264 Cross-Regional Inspection Begins

Number one in the world, number one in the world—these four simple words carry a weight heavier than Mount Tai. Who dares to accept them?

There weren't many people in the flight preparation room at the time, and some people had noticed Xu Xian and Sheng Shilong from the very beginning of their confrontation. However, most people didn't recognize Sheng Shilong; they were just curious as to why someone dressed in civilian clothes had come to the flight preparation room.

However, despite their curiosity, they didn't have time to pay attention to who Sheng Shilong was. They were more concerned with how to get enough passengers on their flights so they could earn their hourly rate for the day.

But as Xu Xian and Sheng Shilong's conversation unfolded, especially the line "I came to see the world's number one," it was as if the air in the entire space was sucked away, and the sound became inaudible.

Xu Xian was clearly taken aback by Sheng Shilong's words and, in a daze, did not respond to them.

Sheng Shilong chuckled and said, "Could it be that you're not the best in the world?"

Xu Xian remained silent; he was a very pragmatic person. Although, based on his performance, no one in the entire country could surpass him recently, skill wasn't a competition, and Xu Xian wasn't sure where his own abilities truly stood. Since he himself wasn't sure, he wouldn't arrogantly declare himself the best in the world.

Even if he actually had such thoughts in his heart

Xu Xian's silence was within Sheng Shilong's expectations. Even Xu Qing and Han Qi wouldn't dare to accept the title of "Number One in the World." If someone were to accept such a title recklessly and something went wrong, they would become a laughing stock.

Anyone with a modicum of sense wouldn't accept this ticking time bomb.

"So you're not the best in the world after all. But when I heard your company promoting our Instructor Han, you weren't so conservative at all." Sheng Shilong tilted his head slightly, turning to Cao Jinwen at the door: "Isn't that right, Captain Cao?"

Star Travel Airlines is now one of the airlines with the highest passenger volume recently, and Sheng Shilong knows some of the people there.

The incident Sheng Shilong mentioned regarding Star Travel Airlines' promotion of Hanqi's news originated from Star Travel's official media account reposting information about Hanqi's failed attempt to recreate its low-altitude leveling maneuver. It was merely a repost, without any comment, but this action alone is noteworthy. Many self-media outlets believe that Star Travel Airlines' move implicitly confirmed the veracity of the news regarding Hanqi's failed low-altitude leveling maneuver.

Because this news involves Kunlong Airlines and Xingyou Airlines, if the two companies honestly do nothing for a while and let it cool down, and then Kunlong Airlines comes out to refute the rumor after the hype has subsided, the impact of this matter can be minimized.

Normally, all airlines that have any connection with Kunlong Airlines will "be very "well-behaved" and wait for Kunlong Airlines to make a statement before they follow suit.

However, Kunlong Airlines considers Xingyou Airlines' actions to be a serious overstepping of boundaries!

Who is Han Qi? He's the face of Kunlong Airlines! Xingyou Airlines forwarded all the news about Han Qi, even the negative news, without informing them beforehand, which seems very inconsiderate.

The matter became complicated again after Star Travel's official account reposted it.

Of course, another reason was that Kunlong Airlines was overconfident, assuming that Xingyou Airlines would know the rules and wouldn't act rashly. However, things didn't go as Kunlong Airlines had anticipated.

The involvement of Xingyou Airlines' official account has reignited the already heated discussion surrounding the news, greatly angering Kunlong Airlines' public relations department. Fortunately, Xingyou Airlines' official account only reposted the message without commenting, otherwise the situation would have become even more chaotic.

However, Kunlong Airlines viewed Xingyou Airlines' actions as nothing short of provocation. Therefore, Sheng Shilong, a member of Kunlong Airlines, came today to give them a taste of their power.

Cao Jinwen was initially busy with the passenger seat strike, but was suddenly called out for no reason. He frowned and said, "Sheng Shilong, are you here to cause trouble?"

In fact, Cao Jinwen had no idea about the so-called Xingyou Airlines official account reposting the news. As an old salted fish, he had no interest in such trivial matters.

Therefore, based on Cao Jinwen's intuition, this inspector from Kunlong Airlines was simply there to cause trouble. The reason was simple: for a long time, Kunlong Airlines and Qingyuan Group were the two unparalleled giants in the domestic civil aviation industry. However, recently, Xingyou Airlines has emerged as a dark horse, which has made the people from Kunlong Airlines feel threatened, hence their sarcastic remarks.

Sheng Shilong is an inspector, not an administrative officer, and does not represent the company's actions. Technical issues can be discussed calmly, but if someone comes to cause trouble, Cao Jinwen has no interest in appeasing them.

Cao Jinwen knew that his words might cause Sheng Shilong to make things difficult for the people from his company who were being inspected during future inspections. But this guy was clearly targeting Xingyou, so even if he flattered him, the result would be the same, so he simply didn't tolerate him.

Sheng Shilong was somewhat surprised by Cao Jinwen's direct counterattack. He just happened to run into Cao Jinwen, this hothead. Otherwise, if he had met other leaders, even if he knew that speaking softly would not be of much use, he would not have been as vehement as Cao Jinwen for the sake of face.

"Captain Cao, is this how you treat guests at Xingyou?" Sheng Shilong wasn't annoyed at all. "I just came to admire the recently famous Xu Xian's demeanor. Is it really necessary to get so angry? Also, isn't it peak departure season now? Why are there only a few people in the preparation room? Did something happen?"

Each airline's flight schedule is definitely different, but 6:30 to 8:30 am is generally the morning peak for each airline. If you convert that to check-in time, it should be from 5 am to around 7 am. The flight preparation room should be packed with people, unlike the current scene of only a few people.

There must be something wrong with Star Travel Airlines, otherwise there wouldn't be so few people. Even if Sheng Shilong didn't know the specifics of the problem, it didn't stop him from making sarcastic remarks.

Cao Jinwen's face stiffened. Sheng Shilong's arrival was quite coincidental, just when Xingyou Aviation was in trouble. Even with Cao Jinwen's thick skin, he couldn't help but blush and was speechless.

At this point, Xu Xian finally understood that Sheng Shilong was deliberately trying to annoy people. Xu Xian's usual approach to such troublemakers was to refuse to communicate.

The more you interact with this type of person, the more excited and enthusiastic he becomes. If you just leave him hanging, he'll eventually get bored.

Clearly, Sheng Shilong hadn't reached the point where he would shamelessly persist in talking to Xu Xian even if Xu Xian ignored him. He was genuinely curious about what kind of person Xu Xian was today, and came in a private capacity to probe his background. After all, it was easy to arouse curiosity about this young man who had risen like a comet.

However, it seems that he has gained something unexpected.

"Alright, it seems you're not very welcoming. Well then, I won't get in your way." Sheng Shilong clapped his hands and said to Xu Xian, "See you in a couple of days for the checkup!"

With that, he strode away.

After leaving the flight preparation room, Sheng Shilong hesitated for a moment before dialing his company's public relations department.

After Sheng Shilong left, Cao Jinwen temporarily put aside his work to find Xu Xian. Xu Xian was idly flipping through electronic aeronautical charts when he saw Cao Jinwen approaching. He smiled and said, "Mr. Cao, what can I do for you?"

"You're really carefree. With Sheng Shilong's attitude, you're probably going to suffer during the inspection in a couple of days." Cao Jinwen was also somewhat helpless about Xu Xian's nonchalant attitude, as if nothing could cause Xu Xian any significant emotional fluctuation. If it were any other pilot, knowing that the inspector would deliberately make things difficult for him, he would definitely be worried, not as composed as Xu Xian.

Xu Xian yawned: "That depends on how good he is at finding fault!"

It's not uncommon for inspectors to deliberately find fault, but even this should be done within the bounds of basic law. If it goes too far, they might be sued by the authorities, which would be a real hassle.

Therefore, finding fault during flight route inspections is actually a skill, and it's not entirely up to the inspector's whim. If inspectors could simply pass or reject passengers at will, they would have far too much power.

Xu Xian felt that as long as he did a good enough job and no one could find fault with him, there shouldn't be any major problems. Of course, if Sheng Shilong started nitpicking, he wouldn't mind complaining to the bureau.

"Forget it, you should just get ready." Cao Jinwen looked Xu Xian around. "Are you alone? Where's the captain?"

Xu Xian chuckled: "The captain was reassigned to another flight. Mr. Cao, I see, it's not good for me to just wait here like this. How about we see which instructor pilot needs a first officer and we can switch me?"

"Well, it's not impossible," Cao Jinwen readily agreed. "Which flight do you want to take?"

Xu Xian was overjoyed upon hearing this: "It would be best if it were an instructor's class, so I could practice and get some experience."

"I see!" Xu Xian was about to undergo an inspection, so Cao Jinwen naturally had to grant his request to practice. Without much thought, he called over the dispatcher who was nearby and said to Xu Xian, "Just tell the dispatcher your request, and he will try his best to select a suitable flight for you. I have a lot of things to do, so I'll be going now."

"A lot of things? Is getting scolded a big deal?" Xu Xian laughed heartily.

Cao Jinwen's face darkened. Many high-ranking leaders already knew about the co-pilots' strike, and some had even started heading to the company. As the flight department's duty officer today, he was definitely going to get a severe scolding.

"You little rascal," Cao Jinwen said with a laugh, "Alright, I'm not talking to you anymore, I'm going to get scolded."

Xu Xian waved goodbye. Although he seemed to be laughing and joking, he felt in his heart that this strike by the co-pilots might have a profound impact on the domestic civil aviation market, and he could only wait and see.

The co-pilot strike that day ultimately resulted in the cancellation of a total of 83 flights, and another 33 flights experienced delays of more than three hours.

The widespread and unexpected flight cancellations and delays have drawn complaints from many passengers. If there were objective factors, such as weather or military activity, the impact wouldn't be limited to just Star Airlines, and the large-scale cancellations and delays wouldn't be so noticeable. But now, with only Star Airlines experiencing such a large number of unusual flight cancellations and delays, Star Airlines stands out as the sole and isolated entity in this situation.

Given Star Airlines' recent high-profile activities, much attention has been focused on the airline, which has undoubtedly amplified the incident. As a result, news of widespread cancellations and delays of Star Airlines flights even trended on social media that afternoon.

However, Star Travel's senior management reacted very quickly, promptly covering up the specific reasons for the flight cancellations and delays, only vaguely stating that there were problems with capacity allocation.

Even though the mystique surrounding civil aviation has gradually been lifted in recent years, a certain distance still exists between it and the general public. Therefore, the capacity allocation issues officially claimed by Star Travel Airlines did not arouse much suspicion. Consequently, even though many people criticized Star Travel Airlines for its basic mistakes, at least its image did not suffer a devastating blow.

Knowing that a large number of co-pilots in one's own company went on strike, there's plenty of gossip to dig up about such news.

However, Star Travel's top management realized afterward that if the reason for the co-pilots' strike wasn't clarified, there was a high possibility of a second and third strike.

One accidental capacity allocation problem might be overlooked, but if it happens twice or three times, the public isn't stupid; they'll definitely realize that Star Cruises is in trouble.

Thanks to Xu Xian and Lian Shanxue's outstanding handling of the emergency, Xingyou Airlines has experienced explosive growth. The company's top management strongly desires to extend this upward momentum. Maintaining the current growth rate makes preserving the company's image extremely important. A company experiencing a mass strike by its employees is unlikely to be viewed favorably by outsiders. Therefore, the company's top management must understand the reasons behind this strike. Afterwards, whether through soft or hard measures, they must ensure that such incidents do not recur.

The day after the strike, more than half of the company's leaders were on duty at the office to prevent a repeat of the strike the following day. However, the next day, it was as if nothing had happened; flights continued as usual, backups were made, and everything seemed to have returned to normal.

On the day the service resumed, the medical desk only handled two cases of aircraft grounding, which is a relatively normal number compared to the large fleet size.

Looking at the flight preparation room, which was packed with people again that morning, the leaders finally breathed a sigh of relief.

However, this is not the end of the story; they still have a lot of work to do.

The co-pilot strike was like a minor incident, arriving swiftly and disappearing without a trace, seemingly limiting the damage to only the canceled and delayed flights. But for those co-pilots, it was just the beginning.

Some things shouldn't be done too harshly from the start, otherwise it will only push those company leaders to their limits, resulting in a lose-lose situation, which is not what they want.

By striking a balance between tension and relaxation, the arrogance of those overbearing leaders was gradually worn down, making it easier to have proper discussions later on.

Two days after the co-pilot's strike, he received the specific arrangements for the route inspection, which included the inspection segments and times, as well as precautions.

Xu Xian glanced at the flight segments arranged by the company and couldn't help but smile knowingly. This inspection was the same as the regular route inspection, just two segments in total, but Star Travel Airlines had put thought into selecting the inspection segments.

To minimize the difficulty of the inspection, the company arranged an exceptionally early shift for Xu Xian, requiring him to take off at around 6 a.m. for a round trip to Jiangcheng.

The company had its reasons for choosing this flight.

The flight from Yunnan to Jiangcheng is short, with each segment of flight taking only about an hour and a half. Including ground taxiing time and transit time in Jiangcheng, as long as there are no particularly serious delays or special circumstances, you can make and return before noon.

The reason it's important to return before noon is that convection is less pronounced and airflow is relatively stable before noon, making takeoff and approach easier. If takeoff or landing occurs between noon and 7 PM, convection will be significantly stronger, naturally increasing the difficulty of maneuvering.

Xingyou Aviation didn't distrust Xu Xian's piloting skills; it was just that getting rid of some unnecessary trouble was always a good thing.

If you're talking about avoiding peak convection times, why not choose the night shift? Convection isn't strong at night, so choosing the night shift is fine too.

However, if you choose a late-night flight, and it can't be a short-haul flight within the province, then the landing time is generally after 11 pm. You should know that Yunnan Airport's arrival peak period is from 11 pm to 1 am. At that time, the approach area is very chaotic, the crew's workload is very heavy, and the heavier the workload, the greater the chance of errors.

Meanwhile, Jiangcheng Airport is relatively easy to fly to and from, with crosswinds rarely exceeding three meters per second throughout the year, making it one of the easier airports to fly at among those operated by Xingyou Airlines. Furthermore, Xingyou Airlines' parking positions at Jiangcheng Airport are mostly fixed, and the taxiing routes are also largely consistent, further reducing the difficulty.

Although this inspection was an early morning shift, the flight time was not long, so it wasn't too tiring and wouldn't affect the pilot's condition.

In summary, choosing flights between Yunnan, Yunnan, and Wuhan as the route segment for route inspection is the optimal solution.

The email regarding the route inspection only contained flight numbers and segment information, not crew information, so Xu Xian didn't know who would be the third person to be inspected. However, he had heard from the company that at least a captain-level officer would accompany the inspection, mainly because there are slight differences in the operating procedures between airlines, and to prevent these minor issues from causing flight safety incidents. Just in case, having a captain-level officer accompany the inspection would be reassuring.

If the flight route were different, Xu Xian might have made some preparations. But since it's a flight to Jiangcheng, there's basically no need to prepare.

Although Jiangcheng Airport has two runways, except during runway maintenance, the takeoff and landing routes are fixed, and there's only one approach and departure direction. Xu Xian doesn't even need to look at aeronautical charts or electronic flight plans; he can complete the preparations simply by blindly dialing the CDU.

Therefore, there is a saying circulating in Xingyou Airlines: if the flight route inspection is assigned to fly to Jiangcheng and you still can't pass, it's either because the pilot's skills are not good enough or the inspector is deliberately making things difficult. There is no third possibility.

Against the backdrop of such great favor from the company, Xu Xian faced his scheduled check-up.

Since the departure time was so early, Xu Xian simply arrived at the company a day early and stayed there, saving travel time so he could sleep a little longer at the company.

That day, after being woken up by his alarm clock, Xu Xian quickly got ready and headed straight to the flight preparation room.

The Yunnan-Jiangcheng flight was one of the earliest flights operated by Xingyou Airlines. When Xu Xian arrived at the flight preparation room, there was only one group of people inside. This wasn't a strike; it was simply that Xu Xian had arrived too early.

Xu Xian is a very lazy person. He yawns constantly every time he flies an early morning flight. He plans to have a cup of coffee to perk himself up after signing in, otherwise he might fall asleep on the plane.

After signing in, Xu Xian scratched his head, preparing to collect his documents before going to the lounge to make coffee. However, the dispatcher grabbed his document just as he found it on the document counter.

"6371?"

Xu Xian squinted, clearly still dazed, and didn't speak, only nodding.

The dispatcher immediately said, "The crew has changed it. Please wait a moment, and I will reprint a copy for you."

"The crew changed?" He and Sheng Shilong were certain the crew hadn't changed; it was the captain who had been replaced: "Was the captain changed?"

"Um."

Xu Xian yawned, his mouth wide open, and mumbled, "Whose turn is it now?"

The dispatcher didn't even look up, replying, "It's Lu Xinyu now, President Lu!"

(End of this chapter)