Legendary Captain

Chapter 296 A God-like Performance! Post-Stall Maneuver! (Part 2)

"Ye Qing, you should have heard it just now. There's a suspected foreign object on the track at either the middle or the stop. The middle is fine, but what if it's at the stop? There's not enough room for you to stop, and something bad will happen," the tower commander said urgently.

"Then tell me whether it's in the middle or at the stop. I'm going to level off and fly a little further forward. You need to quickly determine the location of the second foreign object!" Ye Qing shouted. "The fluctuations in my engine speed are becoming more and more obvious. I can't hold on much longer."

Ye Qing is now leveling out, which means he will have to do another quadruple run. However, he is already very close to the runway extension line. If he does another quadruple run, he will easily cross the runway extension line. He may need to reverse the direction later.

However, these are all minor issues. Now, Ye Qing's engine speed is becoming increasingly unstable, a consequence of the fuel supply system's instability caused by insufficient fuel. From now on, it wouldn't be unusual for the engine to stall at any time.

Flying out another quadrilateral was already the limit of the time Ye Qing could extend.

"Damn it, an extra quadruple flight will only buy them a minute or so at most!" Sweat beaded on the tower commander's forehead. At the current speed of Ye Qing's fighter jet, an extra quadruple flight would only buy them a minute, and that was the most optimistic estimate. In reality, it might not even be a minute.

He had just scanned the runway but couldn't find the second object. Now, the control tower couldn't worry about anything else and picked up his binoculars to continue scanning the runway to pinpoint the location of the second object.

"Does this thing even exist? Maybe that person just misjudged it," the tower commander muttered repeatedly.

To be honest, Xu Xian could only pinpoint the location of the first foreign object, and the control tower also knew that. However, he wasn't even sure about the location of the second foreign object, and this uncertainty was the most frustrating. Because of this uncertainty, Ye Qing was risking the engine stopping at any moment to send him to find this thing whose very existence was uncertain, putting him under considerable pressure.

"Damn it, damn it, where is he?!" The tower commander was extremely anxious when suddenly, a person rushed into his field of vision.

The man was wearing a civil aviation pilot's uniform with a reflective vest over it, and he was running wildly towards the runway on the tarmac.

"It's him?" The tower controller's first thought was of the crew member who had alerted him to the presence of a foreign object on the runway earlier. But what was he planning to do now?

On the stairs of the covered bridge, the ground service staff had not yet recovered from Xu Xian's brutality.

Just now, Xu Xian not only snatched her walkie-talkie, but also ripped off her reflective vest. Xu Xian put on the reflective vest, grabbed the walkie-talkie, got off the tarmac, and without a word, sprinted towards the runway.

Bisso Airport is very small, and the distance between the apron and the runway is very short. If you run there with all your might, it won't actually take much time.

The ground service staff initially wanted to give chase, remembering the on-site commander's earlier warning against tarmac activity. But in the blink of an eye, Xu Xian grabbed her walkie-talkie and reflective vest and swaggered off the tarmac. Not only was he moving around on the tarmac, but it looked like he was heading towards the runway – wasn't that suicidal?

It's fine if Xu Xian is courting death, but don't drag her down with him!

However, just as the ground service staff member started to move, Qin Zongyang grabbed his large hand. Qin Zongyang smiled at the staff member and said, "If anything happens, he and I will take responsibility. It won't affect you. Just wait here and don't bother him."

"But..." the ground service staff were still a little worried.

However, Qin Zongyang waved his hand and said, "Let him go, you can't catch up with him now."

Xu Xian's movements were extremely swift, like a cheetah leaping out. In the blink of an eye, he was already close to the runway. For the ground service personnel to still want to catch up with Xu Xian was nothing short of a pipe dream.

"You should remember what you just said!" The ground staff member grabbed Qin Zongyang's sleeve as if afraid he would run away. She was genuinely worried that Qin Zongyang would escape; if the airport authorities questioned her, she would drag him out to take the blame.

Qin Zongyang was both amused and exasperated by the ground staff. He took out his boarding pass and showed it to them: "This is my ID. Why don't you have someone take a picture of it? That way, I won't be able to escape."

The ground staff hesitated for a moment, then immediately made up their minds: "Let's take the photos!"

On the grass beside the runway, Xu Xian anxiously searched for the possible location of the second foreign object. He tried hard to recall where the second object had fallen, but he couldn't find any trace of it on the runway surface corresponding to that location.

"Where is it? Where is it?!" Xu Xian gasped for breath, the faint taste of blood in his mouth. He hadn't done such strenuous exercise in a long time, and this sudden sprint was taking a toll on his body.

Especially in his chest, Xu Xian felt as if a huge boulder was pressing down on him, and even though he tried to breathe, he still felt like he couldn't catch his breath.

"Tower, I need to turn back. The engine speed has started to drop uncontrollably. I can't wait any longer." Ye Qing stared at the indicator on the engine tachometer, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.

Just now, the engine tachometer was only showing continuous fluctuations, but now the index is not only fluctuating, but is also showing a slow decline in an unstable manner.

The situation was urgent; if things didn't improve soon, he would miss his chance.

At this point, even the control tower couldn't stop Ye Qing. If the engine stopped, he wouldn't even have a chance to try landing.

"024, are you going to ground as originally planned?" the tower commander had no choice but to ask.

The original plan, as the tower controller just mentioned, was to touch down in the middle of the runway to clear the first runway obstruction.

"That's right, I landed in the middle of the runway. Let's pray that the second object also landed in the middle, or that it didn't fall onto the runway at all."

To be honest, if the engine hadn't been about to stop due to lack of fuel, Ye Qing wouldn't have wanted to land on the second half of the runway, where the future was uncertain.

"Tower, how far is the first foreign object from the end of the runway?" Ye Qing suddenly asked.

"Visually observe the distance to about 600 to 700 meters. What are you trying to do?" The tower commander didn't understand what Ye Qing meant by asking this, but immediately realized: "Ye Qing, a distance of more than 600 meters is definitely not enough. You should give up this idea as soon as possible."

The control tower was worried that Ye Qing might intend to land directly on the first 600 meters of the runway. This 600-meter section of the runway was indeed completely safe, unlike the latter half of the runway where the situation was unknown.

However, a distance of just over 600 meters is simply not enough for this fighter jet to land. This fighter jet is a twin-engine heavy fighter; completing a landing and deceleration within a distance of just over 600 meters is simply wishful thinking.

From the perspective of the control tower, rather than hoping to complete the landing and deceleration in the first 600 meters, it would be better to bite the bullet and take a gamble on the second half of the runway.

After all, of the three possibilities—the second foreign object landing at the middle end, the stopping end, or outside the runway—as long as it doesn't land at the stopping end, it won't affect the landing. There's at least a two-thirds chance, and compared to landing within the first 600 meters, the feasibility is significantly greater.

Now that we're facing the fuel warning issue, there's no foolproof solution; we can only look for a more promising one.

"Have you spotted any foreign objects on the latter half of the runway?" Ye Qing asked. Regarding the use of the first 600 meters of the runway for landing, Ye Qing seemed to only touch on the topic briefly, without further arguing with the control tower.

The tower controller breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Ye Qing seemed to have given up on this crazy idea: "No, perhaps the crew member just misjudged."

To be honest, the control tower didn't really believe that the fighter jet would have two parts detaching. You see, although this fighter jet was a prototype, far from being finalized, its airframe strength had already been verified during previous test flights. Withstanding loads exceeding 10G wasn't difficult for it. How could a hard landing possibly cause parts to detach from the airframe?

It's already extremely rare to knock off even one part, let alone two parts. What's the difference between that and being struck by lightning twice?

Therefore, based on common sense, the tower controller felt that the reporting crew had made a mistake. And since he hadn't actually seen it, he instinctively felt that the so-called second fallen part was fictitious.

"No, I didn't misjudge!" Suddenly, Xu Xian's rapid breathing came through the channel, mixed with his anxious voice: "A foreign object has been spotted at the runway stop! We can't use the rear half of the runway to land! We can't use the rear half of the runway to land!"

Xu Xian had been holding a walkie-talkie the whole time, so he could hear the conversation between the tower controller and the fighter pilot clearly. He also knew about their plan to use the rear half of the runway to touch down.

However, a second foreign object has now been discovered at the stop end of the runway, making the original plan for the rear half of the runway to land unfeasible.

"Impossible! What position!" The tower commander was shocked upon hearing this. In his field of vision, he saw the pilot wearing the reflective vest running wildly from the end of the runway, along the runway edge, toward the circular marker in the center of the runway.

"I don't know, I'm not sure, I'm going to go get the stuff back," Xu Xian yelled into the walkie-talkie.

Due to his limited field of vision, unlike the control tower who has a commanding view and can pinpoint the location of parts and foreign objects by using runway markings, he can only estimate the approximate location of parts and foreign objects entirely by feel.

However, even if he could tell the exact location of the foreign object, it would not change the situation. The only way to help now is for Xu Xian to pick up the foreign object before the plane lands, so that there is a chance to solve the problem.

This strange object seems close at hand, but running towards it feels like an eternity, much like the proverb "looking at a mountain but running until the horse dies."

"Can you reduce the speed to the minimum? Just make sure it doesn't stall!" Xu Xian looked at the enemy fighter jets that were already very close overhead; he could even hear the roar of their engines.

Xu Xian said this to fighter pilot Ye Qing. He hoped that the fighter jet could reduce its speed to the minimum, which is the minimum speed in the true sense, that is, the airspeed value that is only slightly larger than the speed of stick twitching, rather than the standard approach speed after the landing configuration is established.

However, the speed difference between the two is not significant. Even if Ye Qing reduces his airspeed, the time he can buy for Xu Xian will be minimal, practically negligible. This is because the fighter jet's approach radius is too short; a slight speed difference will not cause a noticeable difference in touchdown time.

Perhaps he was running too hard, because Xu Xian's voice on the walkie-talkie sounded like a leaky bellows, as if he was about to run out of breath any second.

"Brother, stop running." Ye Qing's gaze shifted downwards, scanning the entire track. Under the sunlight, he noticed an unusual reflected light near the middle of the rear half of the track.

He knew that the location of the reflected light was likely where the second foreign object had fallen.

Some parts on fighter jets are polished to an extremely smooth finish, making the entire part look like a mirror. It's not surprising that it can reflect sunlight.

After briefly comparing the location where the second part fell with Xu Xian's position, Ye Qing knew that Xu Xian could not possibly retrieve the part before the plane landed.

"I saw it, but you're too late!" Ye Qing was relieved at this moment: "I won't touch down on the second half of the track."

Upon hearing this, Xu Xian abruptly stopped and looked up, only to see the fighter jet's nose suddenly plummeting, its position rapidly shifting backward.

The change in the fighter jet's attitude was clearly visible to the commander in the control tower. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end in that instant, and he suddenly shouted into the radio, "Ye Qing, what are you trying to do? Which point are you targeting?"

Whether it's civil aviation or military aviation, pilots should know where their touchdown point is before landing. The most common touchdown point is what is commonly referred to as the "big white block".

In visual flight, at slightly higher altitudes, pilots can follow PAPI markers or calculate the standard altitude based on the glide slope. However, in low-altitude environments, typically below 60 to 200 feet, this altitude is the decision altitude for a type of instrument landing. Below this altitude, pilots switch to visual flight and begin point-to-point maneuvering.

Because different runways have different construction designs, the distance between the touchdown point and the runway tip can vary. In such cases, when you are about 30 meters away from the runway, most of your attention is focused on making altitude corrections based on the different touchdown points.

If a pilot finds that the nose of the aircraft is pointing in front of the standard landing area, it means that the descent rate is too low and the nose needs to be lowered, otherwise it may fly over the standard landing area.

Anyway, if you find that the position of your aircraft nose is behind the standard contact area mark, it means that the current descent trajectory is too steep. You can pull the stick down slightly to move the contact point forward so that it can match the position of the standard contact area.

The controller in the control tower wasn't a civil aviation controller, but a military aviation personnel stationed at Bisu Airport. He was also a pilot himself. When he saw Ye Qing's plane start to pitch down, he immediately understood what Ye Qing wanted to do.

The original plan was for Ye Qing to align with the circular marker in the middle of the runway, but now the nose of the plane is dropping significantly, which means that Ye Qing no longer intends to touch down in the middle of the runway.

Moreover, according to the tower controller's visual inspection, the nose of the aircraft was not even facing the large white block of the landing area, but seemed to be facing the runway entrance sign.

The so-called runway entrance markings are commonly known as "zebra crossings." At both ends of the runway, there are runway markings similar to zebra crossings. These zebra crossing-like runway entrance markings provide pilots with information about the runway width; the more zebra crossings there are, the wider the runway is, based on a conversion relationship.

However, the runway threshold is not typically used as a touchdown area. The standard 50-foot approach altitude means that the aircraft should be at least 50 feet above the ground when it reaches the runway threshold marker. It is extremely rare for a pilot to touch down at the runway threshold; if any pilot does so, whether in civil or military aviation, the landing is extremely unsuccessful and dangerous.

However, the point that Ye Qing's plane is pointing at right now is clearly the runway entrance!

As soon as the tower controller saw where Ye Qing's plane was pointing, he knew what Ye Qing wanted to do! He wanted to land on the more than 600-meter runway between the runway entrance and the first foreign object point!

"Ye Qing, are you crazy? You can decelerate in just over 600 meters?" the tower commander roared over the radio. If it were a single-seat, single-engine light fighter jet, he could grit his teeth and accept a 600-meter landing for an emergency. But this prototype was a twin-engine heavy fighter jet, so the landing distance was naturally much longer. There was no way he could decelerate in just over 600 meters. Ye Qing's actions were utterly reckless.

However, Ye Qing responded with resolute words: "If there were any other way, I wouldn't have done this!"

How could Ye Qing not know how insane his actions were? But if there were any other options, he wouldn't have done this. No one would complain about having too long a life, and no one would take their life for granted.

The tower commander gritted his teeth. What Ye Qing said was indeed the truth. There was no so-called "perfect plan" at all!

"Then how do you plan to slow down?" The tower controller had no choice but to accept Ye Qing's choice, but he wanted to hear Ye Qing's thoughts.

Aircraft cannot decelerate indefinitely while in the air; at most, they can only maintain a speed just above the point of slamming on the stick. However, given the performance of this fighter jet, its minimum speed is approximately 270 kilometers per hour. This means that from the moment the aircraft touches down, the pilot needs to bring a fighter jet traveling at 270 kilometers per hour to a stop within a distance of just over 600 meters. Is this even possible?

Moreover, what's even more critical is that Bisu Airport's altitude reaches over 7,000 feet, almost meeting the criteria for a high-altitude airport. At this altitude, the air is much thinner than at sea level, which significantly reduces the performance of speed brakes and parachutes, meaning the braking distance will be longer. This is undoubtedly a major disadvantage for Ye Qing.

It was due to a combination of factors that the tower controller was so pessimistic about Ye Qing's plan. However, in such a desperate situation, he himself couldn't think of any solution and could only follow the ideas of the pilots present.

"What is he trying to do?" At this moment, Xu Xianwei distanced himself from the edge of the runway, his line of sight basically facing the approaching direction of the fighter jet. Due to the limited visibility, he could only make out that the pilot pressed the nose of the aircraft, but he couldn't see the point the nose was pointing at. However, through the conversation between the control tower and the pilot over the radio, he roughly understood what was about to happen.

However, even Xu Xian, a military novice, did not believe that a heavy fighter jet could complete a full braking within a distance of more than 600 meters, especially in the unfavorable environment of this high-altitude airport.

At this point, the plane was already at an extremely low altitude and was about to land! From Xu Xian's perspective, he noticed that the fighter jet's approach altitude was unusually low, ridiculously low. If he were flying a 737 and reached that fighter jet's current position, the terrain warning would definitely have sounded.

"What exactly do you want to do?" The continuous turns and descents just now had already shown that the fighter pilot present was no ordinary person, and Xu Xian did not believe that such a person would be someone who would surrender easily.

The tower controller who had just asked the question on the frequency regretted it the moment the words left his mouth. With the plane about to touch down, why did he still ask Ye Qing a question? Wasn't that interfering with him? However, in this situation, even he was a little flustered, which was why he did such an absurd thing.

"How do we slow down, sir? Watch closely!" With Ye Qing's loud shout over the radio, the tower commander's expression changed drastically.

Because Ye Qing's voice on the frequency was mixed with a series of beeping warning sounds, and the tower commander knew what those warning sounds meant!

That's the alarm sounding when the angle-of-attack limiter is turned off!

"Damn it!" The tower controller's heart nearly stopped. He finally understood how Ye Qing was going to slow down!

In the fighter jet cockpit, Ye Qing first deactivated the angle of attack limiter, maintaining the fly-by-wire control system disconnected and adopting direct connection mode. Then, within 0.3 seconds, he suddenly pulled the stick, almost to the limit position, and held it.

On the lawn, Xu Xian's pupils suddenly contracted, and his mind seemed to stop thinking for a moment. Under the sunlight, the fighter jet, which was almost doomed, suddenly raised its head and increased its posture at an incredible speed. Its nose pitch angle even exceeded ninety degrees in the blink of an eye, like a cobra that had entered combat mode and was ready to strike.

The nose of the aircraft is raised, so that the entire fuselage wing surface forms a huge cross-section. The airflow impacts the fuselage wing surface, and at the wing root, it even forms a visible cloud-like fluid.

This reckless act of using the entire aircraft as a speed brake resulted in a rapid deceleration of the plane with unimaginable efficiency. In just a few seconds, the plane's speed dropped from less than 300 kilometers per hour to just over 100 kilometers per hour.

The plane slowed down at a speed almost visible to the naked eye!

On the control tower, the commander was nearly suffocating. Just now, he had witnessed an absolutely stunning scene.

"Is this the genius that Xikong was talking about, a once-in-a-century talent?" he murmured involuntarily.

After the aircraft reached its maximum angle of attack, the nose began to dip autonomously shortly afterward. In the cockpit, Ye Qing centered the cockpit and increased the thrust of the right engine to counteract the gyroscopic torque generated by the nose drop. While increasing the thrust of the right engine to generate a yawing torque, he constantly monitored the nose's direction. If it deviated even slightly, he would use the rudder to provide the necessary correction to maintain stability.

During this process, Ye Qing couldn't see any instrument displays and had to operate entirely by feel, making it extremely difficult. If he made even the slightest mistake, the aircraft would enter a complex state.

Getting caught in a complex situation at low altitudes is basically a dead end.

From Xu Xian's perspective, the fighter jet, after tilting its head up and decelerating like a celestial being descending from the heavens, rose slightly in altitude. This slight increase in altitude carried the fighter jet to the runway entrance, making it enter the airspace above the runway at an extremely low altitude.

Just before entering the airspace above the runway entrance, the aircraft's nose began to descend. By the time it was fully in the airspace above the runway, the nose had descended to a position close to level. At this moment, Ye Qing slightly pulled the stick to reduce the descent, and the landing gear wheels landed lightly on the runway surface, like a gazelle leaping onto its horns.

This series of actions shattered Xu Xian's understanding. At this moment, looking at the fighter jet that had already deployed its deceleration parachute, his mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts.

Xu Xian stood there blankly, his heart pounding, his chest heaving, and his blood burning like fire.

In this miraculous scene, Xu Xian felt an unprecedented excitement and exhilaration; he had never imagined that an airplane could fly like this.

"A true man should be like this!" Xu Xian uttered these words softly.

Suddenly, Xu Xian felt a sharp pain in his chest, as if a giant hand was squeezing his heart. His vision began to blur, and even the slightest breath caused him excruciating pain.

Suddenly, Xu Xian found his vision going black, his steps becoming unsteady, and a sense of powerlessness gradually overwhelmed him. A moment later, his consciousness faded, and he fainted on the spot.

Please vote with monthly tickets and give me a reward! This is my first time writing about fighter jet special operations, so it's not very well written. Please be gentle with your criticism! Hehe!

(End of this chapter)