Legendary Captain

Chapter 302 Proficiency Check? Martial Arts Tournament!

"What's going on?" Cheng Jingdong was a captain, a veteran of many battles, but he had no idea what was happening.

Within his understanding, it seemed that only unreliable airspeed would trigger a false stick-jumping warning. However, the captain, first officer, and backup pilot's instrument readings were all completely consistent, showing no signs of unreliable airspeed. So what else could cause a stick-jumping warning without stalling?

In fact, Cheng Jingdong no longer had the energy to think about what had happened; the constantly shaking steering wheel made it impossible for him to control the plane steadily.

Similar to control jamming, the key to manual recovery is precise control, avoiding large inputs as much as possible. Sometimes, failing to properly manage large inputs can cause the aircraft to deviate significantly. Once a serious deviation occurs, the pilot has no choice but to use even larger inputs to correct it, which can easily create positive feedback, causing the deviation to grow larger and larger until it becomes irreversible.

For a pilot with captain-level technical skills, manual recovery, at least in a simulator, is not a particularly difficult problem.

Because wind direction and speed are stable in simulators, with at most some continuous turbulence of constant intensity, pilots can easily find patterns after a period of adaptation. However, in actual flight, wind direction and speed changes are unpredictable. Just like Xu Xian at Bisu Airport, when there was a strong tailwind at the fifth approach, the ground wind was a headwind, and the wind direction swung around in a circle at extremely low altitudes. These kinds of changes cannot be reproduced in ordinary simulators; only a few very high-level simulators can simulate them realistically.

Therefore, for most pilots who attempt manual recovery on a general simulator, captains, while not necessarily able to do it effortlessly, can at least manage to land the plane in over 95% of cases. The remaining 5% chance is likely due to the captain having a lapse in judgment or shaky hands; otherwise, they wouldn't be unable to land the plane.

Manual recovery is a clear requirement in the captain training syllabus. If a captain can't land a plane, he would have already lost one of his four bars.

Therefore, Cheng Jingdong was not too panicked about the manual recovery failure. However, plans can change, and the manual recovery that he was originally confident about was now complicated by the lever shaking.

Because of the continuous shaking of the steering wheel, Cheng Jingdong could not hold it at all, and was unable to correct the deviation in the shortest time, which led to the accumulation of more and more deviations.

"Notify the control tower that the aircraft is experiencing a control malfunction and request to remain on one side. There may be some issues with maintaining altitude." Cheng Jingdong was trying his best to correct the deviation. The original starting altitude was 1,800 meters, but his altitude error was fluctuating between 300 and 400 feet, and he could not maintain a stable starting altitude.

Slowly, sweat began to bead on Cheng Jingdong's forehead; it was unclear whether it was from exhaustion or anxiety. Without hydraulic assistance, in manual recovery mode, the pilot directly controls the control surfaces via mechanical connections, requiring significantly more force than usual.

Therefore, during artificial recovery, this aircraft is a veritable airborne gym for the pilots. Many pilots work up a sweat after completing a single lap of artificial recovery flight.

However, judging from Cheng Jingdong's flushed face, it's probably not just from exhaustion. The altitude deviation is getting bigger and bigger, and the situation is becoming more and more urgent. If the deviation accumulates to a certain point, he will lose the chance to correct it.

In situations like this where the altitude cannot be stabilized, it is necessary to communicate with air traffic control in a timely manner; otherwise, a conflict may arise, adding another layer of trouble. The aircraft is currently like a small boat in a storm, its altitude constantly rising and falling, with increasingly larger fluctuations and no sign of stabilizing. Therefore, it is essential to explain the situation to the control tower and request that it clear the surrounding area of ​​aircraft to prevent any unforeseen circumstances beyond a malfunction.

From the moment the steering wheel started vibrating, it was clear that Cheng Jingdong was losing control of the plane. Even though Xu Xian disliked Cheng Jingdong, he still had to fulfill his duties as co-pilot. Xu Xian tried to stabilize the plane, but the moment his hands gripped the steering wheel, a continuous vibration traveled from his right hand throughout his entire body. For a moment, Xu Xian felt his right side shaking, making it impossible to hold the steering wheel, let alone exert any control. It was a complete dead end!

"Wow, what kind of subject is this? I've never heard of it before!" At that moment, Xu Xian was truly impressed by Lu Xinyu. To be able to come up with a subject with such sky-high difficulty was incredibly impressive. He had never encountered such a malfunction subject when other instructors were training him. It could only be said that Lu Xinyu's imagination was truly boundless.

For faults that require continuous operation, such as manual recovery, I deliberately prevent you from performing continuous operation. You can only watch helplessly as the aircraft deviation increases until you are unable to recover in the end!

That's ruthless, absolutely ruthless! I doubt I could handle it myself! The skill level of this malfunction test isn't actually top-notch, but it's incredibly physically demanding, truly physically demanding. Only someone with immense strength who can firmly grip the steering wheel could possibly complete this test.

At this moment, Cheng Jingdong, whose face was already red with embarrassment, asked Xu Xian to notify the control tower. Xu Xian, who had just come to his senses, hurriedly prepared to report to the tower, but when he caught a glimpse of the scene behind him out of the corner of his eye, he swallowed back the words he was about to say.

Lu Xinyu had opened his eyes at some point, and like Xu Xian and Cheng Jingdong, he was staring at the shaking steering wheel with a face full of questions. It seemed that Lu Xinyu was also in a daze.

"You didn't produce it?" Xu Xianren was also dumbfounded. Looking at Lu Xinyu's clueless expression, it was possible that Lu Xinyu didn't know what was going on either.

At this moment, Cheng Jingdong was completely focused on piloting the plane and paid no attention to what Xu Xian was saying, ignoring it entirely.

When Xu Xian asked Lu Xinyu this, Lu Xinyu grinned widely, his face beaming with undisguised joy. Then he glared at Xu Xian and said, "What are you doing? Checking the plane! Watch out for the plane!"

As soon as Lu Xinyu finished speaking, the terrain warning sounded. Xu Xian was startled and looked back at the MFD. At this moment, the plane was rapidly descending at a rate of more than 2,500 feet per minute. Even Cheng Jingdong's desperate attempts to pull back could not stop the downward momentum.

The aircraft's deviation was too great to be corrected. This situation is exactly the same as when the pitch control is jammed and out of control.

Seeing this, Lu Xinyu knew that Cheng Jingdong's plane was beyond repair, so he got up immediately.

Sure enough, three or four seconds after the terrain warning sounded, a ground-like scene began to appear. Then, just two seconds later, the plane crashed into the ground, followed by a simulated explosion. The entire scene turned red, indicating that the plane had crashed.

The plane crashed!

"It crashed!" Lu Xinyu had already stepped off the control panel, straightening his clothes as he looked at the somewhat distraught Cheng Jingdong. "Since it crashed, there's nothing more to say. Where's your inspection report?"

Lu Xinyu meant that he needed Cheng Jingdong's proficient inspection worksheet, and was prepared to mark it as unqualified.

Upon hearing the mention of being proficient in checking work orders, Cheng Jingdong, who had been somewhat absent-minded, immediately snapped out of his reverie. He unbuckled his seatbelt, turned to Lu Xinyu, and urgently said, "President Lu, just now, when the plane... when there was a problem with the plane, how could you shake the stick during manual recovery? How could you do that?"

"Why can't it happen like that? Can't the steering wheel shake during manual recovery? Which manual says that the steering wheel won't shake during manual recovery? You can't be so absolute, can you?" Lu Xinyu said with a smile, but his demeanor was rather sarcastic.

"No, I mean, if that's the case, it might exceed the pilot's control limits, making it impossible to control normally."

Lu Xinyu narrowed his eyes, his gaze sweeping over Cheng Jingdong's face: "What do you mean? This plane crash doesn't count?"

"Mr. Lu, this time it really can't be done, to be honest."

"You mean it's unusable?" Lu Xinyu beckoned to Cheng Jingdong with her finger: "Get down!"

Cheng Jingdong was taken aback, but quickly understood what Lu Xinyu meant. He immediately unbuckled all the seatbelts, got off the seat, and then Lu Xinyu sat down directly.

"You know how to operate the control panel, right? Can you restore it or set up the AB system to fail?" Lu Xinyu asked Cheng Jingdong while fastening his seatbelt and adjusting the seat height.

Upon hearing this, Cheng Jingdong asked, "President Lu, is it just a simple AB system malfunction? What about the lever jitter problem?"

Cheng Jingdong had always thought that the steering wheel vibration was caused by Lu Xinyu, but now it seems that it was not intentional on Lu Xinyu's part.

"What difference does it make if I didn't issue the order? Even if I didn't, it still has to come down, otherwise what kind of captain are you?" Lu Xinyu said irritably, "Fine, you don't need to set it up, I'll do it myself."

Cheng Jingdong felt a little guilty after what Lu Xinyu said, so he didn't say anything more and started resetting the simulator.

During this time, Xu Xian muttered to Lu Xinyu in a low voice, "You want to do it yourself? That situation was indeed difficult to handle."

Xu Xian was speaking from the heart. If Lu Xinyu were to act recklessly and embarrass himself, wouldn't that give Cheng Jingdong a handle to use against him?

This is a fault that even the company's chief pilot couldn't handle. Why should I, the captain, be killed because of this impossible fault?

"It's nothing!" Lu Xinyu replied calmly, radiating confidence.

After fastening his seatbelt and adjusting his seat, Lu Xinyu left the aircraft in its current position without even resetting the two backup rudder switches or disconnecting the four hydraulic pump switches, once it had returned to the runway threshold.

At this point, the malfunction had actually been resolved. Simply closing the covers of the two flight control switches and opening the four hydraulic pump switches would restore the aircraft's hydraulic pressure. However, Lu Xinyu deliberately kept all the switches in their original positions, manually disconnecting all hydraulic pressure and artificially setting up a state where the AB system was malfunctioning.

At this moment, due to the CDU data replication, all the data from the CDU was automatically restored the instant the simulator reset, eliminating the need for re-entry. Lu Xinyu quickly calibrated the values ​​on the MCP board, disengaged the autothrottle, and manually adjusted the takeoff thrust.

Under these artificial recovery conditions, Lu Xinyu completed the takeoff operation, then maintained the initial climb attitude until the flaps were retracted and the aircraft was in a smooth state. At this point, the aircraft was close to the starting altitude.

Cheng Jingdong just experienced a loss of pressure in the AB hydraulic system after adjusting the leveling height, and shortly afterward, the steering wheel started shaking.

However, after the height was adjusted to be level, Lu Xinyu waited for a while, and this time the steering wheel did not vibrate. This made Lu Xinyu, who was in the left seat, frown.

At this point, Cheng Jingdong, who was behind him, was certain. The steering wheel vibration he had experienced earlier was not a malfunction by Lu Xinyu, but rather a problem with the simulator itself.

"Mr. Lu, was there a problem with the simulator just now, causing the steering wheel to shake?" Cheng Jingdong immediately said to Lu Xinyu, "Mr. Lu, since it was an accident, and there's nothing we can do about it, how about we just let the crash go?"

After waiting for a while without seeing the steering wheel vibrate, Lu Xinyu realized that the steering wheel vibration was just an occasional malfunction of the simulator, and it didn't mean that the same malfunction would occur under the same conditions.

After a moment's thought, Lu Xinyu did not answer Cheng Jingdong's question, but instead instructed him, "Go and set the airspeed on the passenger side to be unreliable."

Cheng Jingdong was stunned: "President Lu, what do you mean?"

"Didn't you say that manual recovery and steering wheel vibration couldn't fix it? I'll show you whether it can or not." Lu Xinyu raised an eyelid: "What? Don't you know how to set it up? Xu Xian, you take control of the plane for me first, I'll set it up myself."

Seeing that Lu Xinyu was about to personally fix the malfunction, Cheng Jingdong gritted his teeth and said, "President Lu, I can fix it. But what if you can't fly down?"

"As an inspector, what right do I have to demand things of you if I can't even do them myself? If I can't fly down, then the crash just now doesn't count," Lu Xinyu said.

"Good!" Cheng Jingdong shouted. He refused to believe that Lu Xinyu could be so powerful that he could fly down with artificial recovery and stick shaking.

Once the deal was struck, Cheng Jingdong immediately went to the control panel to make the settings.

Shortly afterward, the airspeed indicator on Xu Xian's device began to drop, while the airspeed readings on Lu Xinyu's and the backup airspeed indicators remained essentially unchanged. This indicated that the unreliable airspeed fault set up by Cheng Jingdong had taken effect.

Xu Xian's airspeed kept dropping until it reached the yellow warning zone. Then it continued to decelerate, and the pitch limit indicator started to appear. It continued to decelerate until it reached the red zone.

The moment the airspeed value touched the red zone, an erroneous stall warning was immediately triggered, and both steering wheels began to shake.

This was a deliberate setting by Lu Xinyu to make the airspeed unreliable in order to simulate the occasional steering wheel malfunction that had just occurred. Only in this way could the steering wheel tremble without actually stalling.

Now that he knew his airspeed was reliable, Lu Xinyu simply stopped paying attention to Xu Xian and just focused on his own airspeed meter.

The unreliability of airspeed isn't the problem; the problem is whether Lu Xinyu can stabilize the aircraft while it's jerking off the stick, and with the help of manual recovery. At this moment, Xu Xian and Cheng Jingdong behind him are both staring intently at Lu Xinyu's left hand.

Whether Lu Xinyu proves himself or makes a public appearance depends on his performance.

Under their watchful eyes, Lu Xinyu gripped the steering wheel firmly with her left hand, as if using an iron clamp to hold down the constantly trembling wheel. Almost instantly, Xu Xian felt the previously shaking steering wheel quiet down considerably.

"What incredible strength!" Xu Xian was completely stunned. Lu Xinyu looked tall and thin, but just from this one move, you could see how strong he was, managing to bring the shaking steering wheel under control.

Even Cheng Jingdong, who was observing from behind, gasped in shock. Lu Xinyu had suddenly gripped the trembling control stick, and the plane's altitude remained completely unchanged—it was terrifying.

Cheng Jingdong was a discerning man; from this one move alone, he knew that Lu Xinyu would have no trouble maneuvering the rest.

Sure enough, Lu Xinyu, who had mastered the aircraft's controls, made a sharp 180-degree turn on one side, changed to a fifth approach, and began the approach.

Even during turns, when the aircraft's state is most difficult to control, it maintains a steady descent rate, as if the aircraft has never undergone any artificial recovery and is simply a normal, malfunction-free aircraft.

Once the plane turns and aligns itself with the runway, the next phase will be a smooth descent. If Lu Xinyu can fly so steadily even on a continuous 180-degree turn, a smooth descent will be a piece of cake.

Cheng Jingdong was completely devastated! He thought Lu Xinyu would also be unable to handle the malfunction, but reality slapped him in the face. Lu Xinyu's handling was flawless. Under his command, the same malfunction would cause the plane to rise and fall erratically, but in Lu Xinyu's hands, it was as stable as if there was no malfunction at all. The difference in skill was immediately apparent.

Even Xu Xian, sitting in the right seat, couldn't help but marvel. Putting aside how solid Lu Xinyu's skills were, the sheer force of his hands was enough to amaze him.

Having turned and aligned himself with the runway, Lu Xinyu was too lazy to fly the remaining five loops. He simply let go of the handle and ignored the flight, then unbuckled his seatbelt, stood up, and coldly asked Cheng Jingdong, "Any problems? Give me your proficiency check sheet!"

At this moment, Cheng Jingdong, who was already in a bad mood, exploded on the spot: "Lu Xinyu, you should know that if I die, I will be demoted to co-pilot. How can you let me die? Besides, you are the chief pilot. You can fly a plane even if there is a problem, but I may not be able to fly it! You can't use your standards to judge me."

If a captain fails the skills check, his rank will be directly demoted to first officer, and it will take at least six months to recover. How much money will that cost a captain?

Therefore, in reality, inspectors rarely suspend the captain. Usually, when there are not enough slots, they will suspend the co-pilot to meet the quota. It is rare to target the captain.

However, it is clear that Lu Xinyu is not the kind of person who follows conventions.

"We're both captains, using the same training syllabus and the same inspection standards. What kind of bullshit logic is this that I can fly but you can't? We're pilots, and we're judged by our technical skill level, not our management level!" Lu Xinyu was too lazy to waste words with Cheng Jingdong. He glanced at a small table at the back of the simulator, where Xu Xian and Cheng Jingdong's training courses were displayed. Each of them had a piece of paper tucked into the training course booklet, which should be their proficiency check sheet.

"How can this be the same?" Cheng Jingdong, already somewhat hysterical, pointed at Xu Xian: "When he was flying, you didn't care at all, but when I'm flying, you're here nitpicking at me. Are you bullying the weak and fearing the strong? You can't afford to offend him, so you're deliberately targeting me?"

A cold glint flashed in Lu Xinyu's eyes. He no longer wanted to continue talking to Cheng Jingdong, who had already lost his mind. He got up from his seat and prepared to get Cheng Jingdong's inspection worksheet himself.

Cheng Jingdong also noticed Lu Xinyu's actions, and for reasons unknown, he yelled, "Don't you dare take it!"

Then, she shoved Lu Xinyu's left shoulder.

Xu Xian, who was standing to the side, never expected that Cheng Jingdong would actually dare to make a move; he was simply audacious!

Cheng Jingdong's push wasn't fast, and Lu Xinyu actually had time to dodge. However, after a moment's hesitation, Lu Xinyu glanced at the surveillance camera in the simulator cabin that was facing him, then abandoned the idea of ​​dodging and stood still, facing Cheng Jingdong's push.

Cheng Jingdong attacked in anger, his force heavy, shoving Lu Xinyu so hard that his back slammed against the back of the chair with a loud thud.

It was this noise that startled Cheng Jingdong awake, and he realized that he seemed to have made a big mistake.

In a panic, Cheng Jingdong tried to help Lu Xinyu, but Lu Xinyu pushed Cheng Jingdong away, pressed the button on the control panel to place the ladder, and then left the simulator cabin.

Xu Xian clearly heard the loud thud of Lu Xinyu's back hitting the chair back, and he was completely dumbfounded. How did this supposedly routine inspection turn into a brawl?

Realizing the enormity of his mistake, Cheng Jingdong hurriedly followed Lu Xinyu outside. When he did, he found Lu Xinyu standing at the exit of the simulator cabin. Lu Xinyu was looking up, scanning her surroundings, seemingly engrossed in something.

Suddenly, Cheng Jingdong, who was standing near Lu Xinyu, heard Lu Xinyu murmur softly, "There are no more surveillance cameras now."

Immediately, Lu Xinyu, who had been facing away from Cheng Jingdong, suddenly turned around and slapped Cheng Jingdong hard across the left cheek, leaving Cheng Jingdong stunned on the spot.

Lu Xinyu looked down at Cheng Jingdong and said coldly, "You fool! Originally, Li Chuan asked me to deal with you. I was thinking of killing you this time, making you suffer for half a year, and letting you know what's what. But now I've changed my mind! Soon, our company will have a captain who fails the skills check twice! When that happens, I'll make sure you can't even be a co-pilot!"

"Oh, right!" Lu Xinyu sneered, "The security camera clearly recorded that shove you gave me. My back is killing me right now, and I'm afraid I won't be able to fly for a long time. You'd better prepare your medical bills and lost wages!"

Upon hearing this, Cheng Jingdong's face turned deathly pale!

At this moment, Xu Xian, who was in the simulator, witnessed everything and sighed inwardly at how cunning Lu Xinyu was! Just then, his phone rang, and he saw that it was Ye Qing calling.

Xu Xian hesitated for a moment, but still answered the phone.

As soon as the call connected, Ye Qing's cheerful voice came through: "Xu Xian, once you've finished your refresher training, don't go back to Yunnan. Come straight to Rongfu. Come a day early so I can let you familiarize yourself with C16."

(End of this chapter)