Legendary Captain

Chapter 340 Landing (Thanks to Purple-Eyed Beauty for the two generous donations of 10,000 each)

When EEC hard standby mode is activated, the engine loses its overheat protection against EGT. However, under normal circumstances, the engine can still last for a few more minutes. This engine's operating time is supported by case studies and is written in the manual, not something Lianshanxue just made up.

However, neither the manuals nor the personal experiences of other pilots provide a fixed answer to how long an engine can maintain normal operation after losing overheat protection. Five minutes only indicates a high probability event.

Many years ago, during the highly representative MAX out-of-control incident, Xu Qing also activated the EEC hard backup mode for obstacle crossing. At that time, after activating the EEC hard backup mode, he completed a full five-sided takeoff and landing without the EGT overheating issue occurring.

Indeed, there have been instances where generators overheated immediately after activating EEC hard standby mode. This primarily depends on the generator set's engine thrust settings.

If the engine is set to a relatively low thrust level, it is highly likely that it will not overheat for a long time. Overheating generally only occurs when using high thrust, or even the maximum thrust.

However, the EEC hard standby mode is designed to be a comfortable mode that removes engine limitations. In this mode, there is no fixed way to follow many things.

In fact, the entire process from activating the EEC hard standby mode to retracting the flaps took just over a minute, during which time the number two engine maintained maximum thrust. Once the wings were fully retracted, she immediately began to reduce the throttle.

However, even this short period of extreme thrust of just over a minute still caused signs of engine overheating.

You can't blame anyone else for this situation; you can only say you were just unlucky.

"Is this going to overheat?" Tang Jian was happy to have eliminated the non-instructional deflection a second ago, but the next second an even more serious problem arose.

They only have one engine left, number two. If that engine also malfunctions, wouldn't the plane be without power?

This is something Tang Jian simply cannot accept.

"I'll try easing off the accelerator to see if I can control the overheating problem," Lian Shanxue said with a serious expression.

Gradually reducing the thrust of the overheated engine is a key aspect of handling engine overheating. Even though the engine's EGT hasn't exceeded its limit yet, it's very close. Lian Shanxue decided to take proactive measures to curb the engine overheating.

However, contrary to Lian Shanxue's attempt, the engine's EGT index continued to rise slowly. Even after reducing the thrust of the corresponding engine, the upward trend of EGT only slowed down slightly, but there was no sign of it declining.

"We can't reduce the throttle any further!" Tang Jian hurriedly stopped them, seeing the throttle being reduced continuously. The engine thrust was no longer enough to maintain the aircraft's altitude, and a slight rate of descent had begun to appear. If the throttle was reduced any further, the rate of descent would continue to increase, and they didn't have enough altitude to waste.

In fact, when Lian Shanxue realized that she was constantly reducing thrust but the EGT was not decreasing, she already knew that the method of reducing the throttle was simply unusable.

Generally, if the EGT overheating is only caused by excessive thrust, the EGT index will decrease rapidly after the thrust is reduced. However, when she reduced the thrust just now, the upward trend of the EGT only decreased briefly and did not show any signs of falling back down. This indicates that the thrust is not the root cause of the engine overheating.

This is beyond the scope of what the crew can handle!

The ending was already decided!

Just as Tang Jian said, Lian Shanxue stopped reducing the throttle; if they reduced it any further, they would lose all the little altitude they had left.

Sure enough, shortly after Lian Shanxue did not reduce the throttle, the EGT of the No. 2 engine rapidly increased, eventually breaking through the limit, and the background of the entire EGT data display turned red.

Engine number two finally overheated!

Everyone at the Star Travel Operations Control Center was gathered around the microphone. Just then, a staff member who had just started his shift entered the control center and, seeing the large group of people huddled together, asked in confusion, "What's going on?"

However, he didn't ask any further questions. He was in charge of communications, a relatively peripheral figure in the operations control center. He only needed to contact whomever his superiors told him to. Therefore, he wasn't very interested in anything outside his job description. He merely glanced twice in the direction the crowd was gathering before heading back to his seat.

Suddenly, he noticed an alarm message on a computer screen on the outskirts of the crowd.

"Flight monitoring?" He frowned, clicked on the alarm message, and instantly the EGT overheating information of the No. 2 engine of flight 6334 popped up.

"Is the engine overheating?" He patted his colleague in front of him. "Come take a look at this?"

"What are you looking at?" The colleague in front, who had been focused on Ning Sheng's conversation with the crew, turned around somewhat irritably when called out by the person behind him: "What is it?"

This staff member wasn't specifically in charge of flight monitoring and didn't have much knowledge about flight operations. He could only roughly tell that this seemed to be a sign of engine overheating, but he wasn't sure, so he needed to call someone over to confirm it.

He pointed to the screen next to him: "Does this mean the engine is overheating?"

"Engine overheating?" My colleague glanced at the screen and scoffed, "Isn't this engine overheating? The EGT is way overheating!"

"Oh! It really is an overheated engine." He suddenly realized, and was pleased that he had guessed the alarm message correctly.

"Is this an alert message?" The colleague glanced at the screen. "This is a flight monitoring alert message, right?"

"This seems to be flight 6334."

"Flight 6334? That sounds familiar." The colleague's mind went blank for a moment, not immediately recognizing it, then his body trembled violently: "66334!? Holy crap, Boss Ning, something terrible has happened!"

Ning Sheng, who was crouching beside the microphone waiting for the crew to communicate, was startled by a shrill shout coming from the outside. Pushing through the crowd, he found a man pointing at the screen with a deathly pale face: "Flight 6334's number two engine is overheating! Overheating!"

"What did you say?" Ning Sheng's expression changed drastically. He stepped over the crowd and went straight to the screen. Ning Sheng was skilled in all sorts of techniques. He immediately typed a few words on the keyboard, and the detailed information of the No. 2 engine of flight 6334 appeared on the screen.

All other data is fine, but the EGT index has clearly exceeded the limit! Engine number two is indeed overheating!

"Damn it, how could this happen? No wonder the crew was silent." Ning Sheng had initially thought that the crew had retracted the flaps and the uncontrollable, non-commandable deflection had been eliminated, and everything seemed to be moving in a positive direction. Lian Shanxue had even contacted the control tower to request preparations to receive the aircraft.

Strangely, the crew remained silent after that. They made no reports or requests, simply maintaining radio silence.

Ning Sheng was still wondering what the crew was doing, but now everything seemed clear. They were definitely held up by the engine overheating and busy fixing it; they wouldn't have the time to waste on the radio.

On the flight monitoring screen, Ning Sheng could see that the thrust of engine number two was maintained at approximately 58. According to the procedure for handling engine overheating, the thrust of engine number two should be reduced to idle position, and finally the engine start handle should be turned off. However, the crew did not follow the standard procedure.

This is not because the crew made a mistake, but rather because the crew made a spontaneous response based on the specific circumstances.

Now that engine number one is completely shut down, if engine number two is also cut off, wouldn't we lose all power? The unit is currently able to maintain a basic thrust of around 58, which suggests that they've determined that reducing thrust won't reduce the EGT, so they've decided to temporarily ignore the EGT.

Since the engine overheating is unavoidable, there's no need to worry about it anymore.

This is a very barbaric and crude approach, but it is also the most reasonable method. Rather than wasting energy on problems that cannot be solved at all, it is more practical to take advantage of the engine's brief respite to complete the landing as quickly as possible.

"President Ning, is the flight crew just abandoning their responsibilities?" Someone else also realized the crew's intentions: "Is this acceptable? Won't they be held accountable later?"

The crew's disregard for the engine overheating was, strictly speaking, a violation of procedures. However, Ning Sheng, as the chief pilot, had his own perspective: "It depends on whether they can land safely. If they can land safely, then this action demonstrates strong on-the-spot response capabilities. If any problems arise later, then this is a violation of regulations, and the punishment would be even more severe."

Civil aviation is an industry that highly values ​​results. As long as the final result is good, there may be different assessments of certain aspects during the investigation process.

As Ning Sheng stated, the handling of the engine overheating by the crew of Flight 6334 is currently controversial. Whether this action was right or wrong depends heavily on the final outcome.

"Although an engine overheating doesn't necessarily mean it will shut down immediately, it should happen very quickly. What should we do?" The people around started chattering. "Is it too late to turn back to our base? They shouldn't be far from here. A thousand feet should be just about enough."

The aircraft of Xingyou 6334 was indeed not far from Binjiang Airport. In terms of altitude-to-distance ratio, even if the number two engine shut down due to overheating, there was still a very small chance that it could return to land.

However, Ning Sheng's expression was quite grim. If one only looked at the altitude difference between the plane and the airport, there was indeed still a glimmer of hope. But now, another crucial issue was involved, one that those around him hadn't noticed.

That's a turn!

"What? You're saying we're not going back to Binjiang?" Tang Jian was utterly astonished when he heard Lian Shanxue's words. He was completely taken aback. "Why can't we go back to Binjiang at this altitude? Isn't there still some maneuverability in the height-to-weight ratio? The engine is still running, isn't it?"

"Don't fool yourself, the engine will only last another half minute at most!" After the engine overheats, it won't shut off immediately; you'll have to wait a little longer, but that time will be very short. The idea that the engine is still running is just you fooling yourself.

Lian Shanxue had no time to waste with Tang Jian anymore. She squinted and scanned ahead, as if searching for something.

"Where are you flying to?" When Tang Jian realized that Lian Shanxue wasn't going to change course, the veins in his throat bulged: "What are you doing! The airport is behind us!"

"So you know the airport's behind us!" Lian Shanxue sneered. "Since the airport's behind us, we'll have to turn more than half a circle to align with the runway. Don't you know how quickly we lose altitude when turning? A thousand feet isn't even enough to cover our altitude loss during a turn!"

Tang Jian's pupils flickered slightly. In his haste, he had indeed forgotten that they needed to make a sharp turn to align with the runway. Whether they turned left or right, the result would be the same. During a turn, the aircraft loses a significant amount of lift, resulting in a much greater rate of descent compared to a normal, level wing position. They were only a thousand feet above sea level and couldn't withstand such a drastic change.

Even if the throttle can be maintained at 58 now, it's not certain whether we can fly back to Binjiang. This is because turning not only results in a loss of lift, but also makes it difficult for the pilot to control sideslip and precisely eliminate it.

Whenever sideslip occurs, the drag encountered by the aircraft will increase further, resulting in a faster descent rate.

Lian Shanxue's original plan was to eliminate the aircraft's yaw and then maintain a relatively large thrust for a short period of time to slowly ascend to a higher altitude. This way, even if the engine malfunctioned later, they would have enough altitude margin to maneuver.

But no one expected that the engine would overheat shortly after the flaps retracted, giving the aircraft no chance to gain altitude. Now, let alone gain altitude, even the original 1,000 feet altitude is hard to guarantee; it's as if God has played a huge joke on Lianshan Snow.

"What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Since you activated the EEC hard standby mode, you should have considered this possibility. Now the No. 2 engine is about to be scrapped, and according to you, we can't get back to Binjiang. What are we going to do? You have to take responsibility for this!" Tang Jian roared.

While Tang Jian's words were somewhat harsh, they weren't entirely without merit. When Lian Shanxue insisted on activating the EEC hard standby mode, this possibility should have been taken into account. After all, the idea that the engine could last five minutes was a high-probability event, not an absolute certainty. What if they were unlucky and, like now, overheated after a short time?

If Lian Shanxue didn't consider this point, how is that any different from Tang Jian's gambling-like behavior of wasting fuel and ignoring the damage to the wing?

It's all gambling anyway!

"Although we can't transfer back to Binjiang Airport, if we can maintain direct flights, the descent rate will be easier to control," Lian Shanxue said.

"A direct flight?" Tang Jian was taken aback, glancing at the navigation page. "What are you trying to do? Is there an airport ahead? No! Are you going to make an emergency landing at the nearest one?"

Tang Jian thought Lian Shanxue must have gone mad. If they could fly directly, the descent rate would be much easier to control, and the plane could fly for much longer. But there was no airport ahead of them, at least not on the navigation page, and Tang Jian couldn't recall any other airports near Binjiang.

"There's an airport up ahead!" Lian Shanxue said almost with certainty.

"Where is the airport? I know all the airports near Binjiang, so where do you want to go?" Just as Tang Jian was excitedly debating with Lian Shanxue, a large open space gradually came into view in front of them, and a small airport was clearly visible in the middle of the open space.

"This is..." Tang Jian was almost speechless with shock, never expecting there really was an airport. He rubbed his eyes, still somewhat incredulous.

Lian Shanxue narrowed her eyes: "A military airfield!"

As she spoke, Lian Shanxue pressed the call button: "Xu Xian, our number two engine is overheating and we are unable to return to Binjiang Airport. We are currently flying southeast, and there is an airport not far away. Is that the airport you are at?"

Huining Airport is a purely military airport, and its airport data is classified, so there is no record of it in the database for flight 6334. Therefore, Lian Shanxue needs to confirm this.

"Southeast?" Xu Xian was stunned. Huining Airport was indeed not far southeast of Binjiang Airport. "They're coming this way?"

Xu Xian was greatly surprised. He picked up a telescope next to him and looked at the opposite pentagon. Sure enough, he saw the Star Traveler's plane in the sky.

"They're really here?" Xu Xian's mind went blank for a moment, but he quickly recovered: "Lian Shan, you're facing Huining Airport right now. But the runway here is only 1,600 meters long. You're going too fast, the runway might not be long enough."

A 1,600-meter runway is already considered a very short runway. However, due to a problem with the leading edge device, Lianshanxue is unable to use its flaps and can only land with all flaps retracted. This results in a very high approach speed, which in turn greatly increases the landing braking distance.

"1600 meters is enough!" Lian Shanxue said firmly, "I need to make an emergency landing at Huining Airport. You arrange it for me!"

Xu Xian was momentarily speechless, then turned to look at Yuan Fengjie, who had been leisurely sitting beside him.

At that moment, Yuan Fengjie, holding a teacup, slowly placed it on the table, practically jumping up: "How the hell did I end up here?"

Originally, Yuan Fengjie was just a bystander, but as he watched, he ended up getting caught up in the drama himself.

However, Huining Airport currently has no training missions, so there is no scheduling pressure, and it should accept Xingyou's planes both logically and practically.

"Director Yuan," Xu Xian called out to Yuan Fengjie.

"Shut up!" Yuan Fengjie had truly lost his mind. Today was supposed to be a peaceful day off with no missions, and now it's turned into this: "I'll go turn on the lights and contact the fire department."

Xingyou Operations Control and Binjiang Tower had, of course, heard Lian Shanxue's words, but they hadn't expected things to change so quickly. One moment they were preparing to land at Binjiang Airport, and the next they were at Huining Airport?

"Huining Airport, is that the military airport next door?" Gu Wei asked.

Xu Jingzhong nodded: "That's right! Engine number two overheated. It's true what they say, when luck is on your side, everything works in your favor, but when luck turns, even heroes are helpless. What you fear most is what happens."

If the No. 2 engine overheated, given the position and altitude of flight 6334, it was indeed impossible to return to Binjiang. In that case, flying directly to Huining Airport ahead would be a good option.

However, the runway at Huining Airport is too short, excessively short. Even among military airports that are generally not long, Huining Airport is considered small.

Due to the extremely short runway length of Huining Airport, takeoffs and landings were sometimes prohibited on rainy days when the runway's braking effect was poor.

But this is just one airport, and now a large passenger plane is going to land on it, which is really hard to say.

Binjiang Airport is indeed very close to Huining Airport. Flight 6334 was currently positioned directly opposite the fifth edge of Huining Airport's runway. Shortly afterward, all the lights at Huining Airport, which had been off, came on again.

There were no flight training scheduled for today, so the airport lights were kept off. However, now that we need to receive the aircraft, we have to turn them back on.

During the daytime, the effects of the various lights are not very noticeable, but it's better than nothing.

"Altitude is enough!" Tang Jian said. Thanks to the barely functioning No. 2 engine, the aircraft's descent rate was actually very small, and coupled with the aircraft's high speed, the aircraft reached sufficient altitude in a short period of time.

"Not enough!" Lian Shanxue said calmly.

Tang Jian frowned: "Are you going to fly the plane at the altitude where both engines are shut down? You're at such a high altitude and speed now, it would be very dangerous to land on a short runway."

"I need to take precautions!" Lian Shanxue insisted.

At this moment, Huining Airport was in sight; however, the thrust of engine number two began to fluctuate and steadily decrease. This was all expected. After an engine overheats, a common consequence is engine shutdown, and in more severe cases, an engine fire alarm.

Whether it's an engine fire or an engine shutdown, it means the same thing to Lian Shanxue now; she has already lost the second engine.

Just as Lian Shanxue had anticipated, she maintained an extremely low rate of descent to allow the aircraft to maintain sufficient altitude. At this point, visually, the aircraft's altitude was already extremely high, even considering it was free-gliding with both engines shut down.

On the control tower at Huining Airport, Yuan Fengjie looked up at the towering planes and remarked, "She's really cautious!"

"That's called insurance!" In Xu Xian's view, if there's a possibility of both engines failing, it's okay for the plane to be a little higher. After all, there are ways to come down. But if it goes too low, then there's no way to climb back up.

"But...this is too high! Will she be able to get down?"

Xu Xian didn't seem to care much: "Aren't there speed bumps too?"

Just then, Lian Shanxue ordered, "Release the wheels!"

At this moment, due to the detachment of engine number one and the failure of hydraulic system A, manual deployment of the landing gear was necessary. This was not a difficult task for Captain Tang Jian; it simply involved a few extra steps.

After the landing gear is deployed, the aircraft's drag increases, and the rate of descent begins to increase significantly, although the aircraft remains relatively high.

"It's still a bit too high." Through visual inspection, Tang Jian realized that even with the landing gear down, the plane was still too high, which would cause the plane's touchdown point to keep moving forward, thus wasting the already short runway distance.

He hesitated for a moment: "Do we need to use speed brakes?"

Pulling down the speed bump at this low height is actually against regulations, but the situation is special, so we can't worry about that now.

"Okay!" Lian Shanxue said calmly, agreeing with Tang Jian's suggestion, as the plane was indeed still a bit too high.

"I'll pull it a little slower!" Tang Jian said, and began to slowly pull up the speed brakes. In an instant, the plane's descent rate began to increase, and it was indeed effective.

However, to Lian Shanxue's surprise, the moment the speed brakes were pulled up, the plane suddenly began to veer uncontrollably to the right. Lian Shanxue quickly tried to correct the situation, shouting, "Retract the speed brakes! Retract the speed brakes!"

Tang Jian immediately realized what was happening and quickly retracted the speed bumper: "Is there something wrong with the left speed bumper?"

The two people in the cockpit didn't know the exact reason, but judging from the deflection effect, it seemed that the left airbrake hadn't deployed, while the right airbrake had deployed normally. This resulted in the left wing generating more lift than the right wing, causing the aircraft to turn right.

The two didn't have time to delve into the specific reasons; they were at too high a level and needed to correct themselves immediately.

"What should we do?"

If things continue like this, the plane could land in the middle of the runway, meaning it only has a braking distance of about 800 meters. How can a large passenger plane possibly stop within 800 meters?

"Why are they still at such a high altitude? Didn't you say you could use the speed brakes?" After seeing the plane lower its landing gear, Yuan Fengjie stopped talking. The descent rate didn't seem to change much, and there was even a significant correction in the roll, which was puzzling.

Let alone Yuan Fengjie, even Xu Xian was confused. Were the two above still worried about the height restrictions on the speed bumps? Could they be that outdated?

At this critical moment, Lian Shanxue experienced an unprecedented clarity of mind.

Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration and stepped hard on the right rudder, causing the plane to immediately sideslip. At this point, the plane had no thrust on either side and there was no sideslip to begin with, but Lian Shanxue's step artificially created a sideslip.

"What are you going to do?" This drastic change in his state immediately alerted Tang Jian.

Before he could react, Lian Shanxue pushed the rudder all the way to the left, creating a reverse maneuver of pushing the rudder to the left and aggravating it to the right. As a result, the plane headed towards the runway at an angle.

"Is she using sideslip to increase drag?" Yuan Fengjie shook his head. "Did you teach her that? She really dares to do anything!"

Xu Xian said with a wry smile, "I didn't tell her to do that!"

When an aircraft sideslips, it experiences a significant increase in drag. This causes the aircraft to descend more rapidly without increasing its speed.

Tang Jian's eyes flashed with a sharp light; he hadn't expected Lian Shanxue to come up with such a trick.

He kept comparing the aircraft's altitude-to-distance ratio, and once he felt it was about right, he exclaimed repeatedly, "That's enough, that's enough, the altitude is good!"

Lian Shanxue also trusted Tang Jian. After hearing Tang Jian say that the altitude was not a problem, she immediately turned the rudder and the plane returned to a state without sideslip.

Just as the plane was about to enter the airspace above the runway, Lian Shanxue slightly lowered the chassis, shifting the touchdown point backward to increase the braking distance.

At this moment, Tang Jian put both feet on the rudder, preparing to take control of the aircraft's direction the moment it touched down.

It must be said that Lian Shanxue's skills were truly solid. After descending at a steep angle to the touchdown point, about thirty feet down, he gently pulled the aircraft's nose up. The nose immediately shifted from a nose-down position to a slightly upward tilt for touchdown, and the aircraft's descent began to decrease significantly.

As soon as this grounded posture was adopted, Xu Xian on the control tower knew that everything was fine!

However, due to the initial heavy snowfall from the mountains, even though it was brought back at the last moment, the aircraft's touchdown attitude was still somewhat low. The aircraft's energy was not completely dissipated, and it ultimately had a slightly heavier touchdown, almost like it was biting into the runway, before finally landing on the runway.

I'll add an extra chapter. I'm busy these two days, so I'll add it on Thursday or Friday!

(End of this chapter)