Legendary Captain

Chapter 369 How to Turn the Tide?

"What's wrong with the engine EGT? It shouldn't be this low." The captain also noticed the abnormality of the number one engine. At this moment, the contrast between the two engines was too strong. Even someone who is not a flight professional should be able to tell that there was a problem.

Xu Xian remained silent. He knew that under normal circumstances, the turbine engine wouldn't be extinguished by rain. Otherwise, this culmination of numerous high-tech advancements would be too ineffective. However, under certain special circumstances, even the core of a turbine engine couldn't withstand the erosion of rainwater.

Many people can imagine that an engine would be unable to operate if submerged in water. While the environment an aircraft is in isn't quite as extreme as being directly submerged in water, it's not far off. Therefore, it's understandable that the EGT of engine number one would show an abnormal decrease.

The captain was quite nervous. The EGT temperature of engine number one was dropping abnormally, and he had no idea what would happen next, because none of the manuals he had studied described any possible EGT drop during heavy rainfall. Because of this, the captain didn't know how to handle the situation.

Even knowing the source, the entire typhoon area, except for the eye, is now enveloped by spiral rainbands. Wherever the spiral rainbands exist, there will be precipitation; they have no way to avoid it.

The typhoon will either enter the eye of the typhoon or rise to the top of the typhoon system; the former is clearly more likely. However, what if the number one engine shuts down if this continues?

Even when both engines were running normally, they were not confident that they could safely and completely cross the boundary of the typhoon's eye, let alone after losing one engine.

If an aircraft only has one engine, it doesn't mean it can't fly. Rather, its flight performance will be severely affected, and its maneuverability will be seriously limited. The thin layer of airflow at the edge of a typhoon's eye is already extremely turbulent; if maneuverability is compromised, wouldn't it mean the aircraft is like a lone boat adrift on a raging sea, simply drifting with the current?

If that's the case, wouldn't that mean leaving one's fate to the choice of heaven?

In such a situation, it would be unacceptable to any professional pilot.

However, the current situation is that they don't seem to have any particularly good solutions. As long as they don't leave the area affected by the typhoon, the heavy rainfall will not end, and the risk of engine shutdown will not disappear.

"Should we descend?" the captain asked, at a loss.

They're currently too close to the spiral rainbands due to their increased altitude, which is causing the rain to be heavier. Lowering their altitude might reduce the rainfall.

"Don't descend!" Xu Xian rejected the captain's suggestion without hesitation. "Continue to ascend. If we can hold on a little longer, we can descend. If we descend now, the plane will have to pass through the cloud wall area, which will expose us to the additional risks of hail and turbulence, two more direct dangers."

The situation is simple: there is no completely safe path to take. Xu Xian can only evaluate the less dangerous options among the various choices—it's a last resort.

As soon as the aircraft descends, it will face a sharply increased risk of hail. In Xu Xian's view, the risk of severe turbulence encountered when traversing the cloud wall is not as great as the risk of hail.

While severe turbulence caused by encountering turbulence only poses a theoretical risk of aircraft disintegration, the risk of hail is a very real one.

However, if the hailstones were to strike the damaged right windshield again, that windshield would definitely not withstand another impact. At such high altitudes, with such heavy rainfall and extremely low temperatures, oxygen deprivation might only be a less fatal factor. The surging freezing rain could turn the people in the cockpit into ice sculptures in a short time—a situation beyond human control, at least Xu Xian hadn't considered.

Xu Xian would not put himself in a situation he could not resolve, so descending in altitude was unacceptable to him.

"But what if the number one engine shuts down if we continue flying at high altitude?" the captain asked with keen eyes. "An engine that shuts down in this environment is very difficult to restart in the air."

While the manual does not mention that heavy rainfall can extinguish an engine, the success rate of restarting an engine will be greatly reduced if it is excessively cooled after being shut down.

This wasn't the captain's imagination; it was a fact explicitly stated in the supplementary instructions of the engine in-flight start checklist. Normally, an overcooled engine refers to an engine that has been shut down for more than half an hour. However, this definition applies to general conditions. Now, they were not only at a high altitude but also surrounded by heavy precipitation. Under such circumstances, once the engine shuts down, the core engine temperature will drop rapidly, reaching the so-called overcooled state in a very short time. Once in this state, a successful in-flight start is virtually impossible.

This means that once the number one engine shuts down, there is virtually no chance of restarting it. Therefore, they would have to cross the typhoon's eye boundary with only one engine running. Just thinking about this possible scenario made the captain shudder.

No one wants to experience the feeling of entrusting their life to something they have absolutely no control over.

"I know!" Xu Xian knew what an engine stalling meant in this freezing rain, but he had no intention of changing his mind. Even in this dilemma, Xu Xian's emotions remained largely unchanged: "If one engine stalls, we might survive! But if the windshield shatters, we're definitely dead!"

"Brother Xu, are you saying that even if engine number one shuts down, we might still cross the boundary of the typhoon's eye? But the turbulence there is very strong. With only one engine, can we withstand it?" The captain raised his question at the right time.

"Then let's find a place where the turbulence isn't too strong to go in!" Xu Xian said calmly, as if the scene described by the captain was nothing more than an ordinary occurrence.

The duty officer at the Huacheng Control Center contacted the meteorological department to have it transmit the typhoon's meteorological data to the area control center, as the meteorological department's real-time typhoon data is the most accurate.

Looking at the entire southern region shrouded by a huge spiral-shaped air mass, the duty officer couldn't help but marvel at how extremely rare the scale of this typhoon was.

"Zhangzhou." The duty officer quickly located Zhangzhou Airport on the screen. At this moment, Zhangzhou Airport was located on the edge of the typhoon's eye. However, as the typhoon moves, it is believed that Zhangzhou Airport will soon enter the typhoon's eye, at which time it will experience a brief period of good weather.

The duty officer muttered to himself, "Just like he said!"

Frankly speaking, even if you get the typhoon's predicted path from television, you can still quickly calculate suitable alternate airports within the typhoon's eye at the expected landing time. This computational ability alone is beyond the reach of most people.

"Is the weather forecast for Zhangzhou Airport out?" the duty manager asked his assistant. Even though the weather map showed that Zhangzhou Airport would soon become the only airport in the entire southern region where passengers could land, the duty manager still needed an accurate forecast from the meteorological department for safety reasons.

Weather forecasts are more accurate the shorter the time frame, but the duty officer only needs a forecast for the next two hours. Given the current technical capabilities of the meteorological bureau, predicting the weather pattern for only two hours ahead is still quite reliable.

The assistant, having served the duty manager for many years, had already contacted the meteorological bureau beforehand without being instructed. When the duty manager asked, the assistant immediately replied, "The meteorological bureau said the weather at Zhangzhou Airport will improve in about half an hour. And the improved weather will last for about an hour and a half."

"Half an hour?" The duty manager frowned. "They don't know if they can hold out for half an hour."

Honestly, it's unacceptable for a plane that has strayed into a typhoon to stay inside for even a second longer, let alone half an hour.

"Director, the meteorological bureau's claim of improved weather refers to light rain or less. In reality, the plane can land as soon as the rain reduces to moderate rain. Furthermore, the wind at Zhangzhou Airport is decreasing rapidly and will soon be below standard. Therefore, based on landing standards, it shouldn't take half an hour at all." The assistant, who seemed to know a bit about aviation, added, "Besides, Director Xu Xian is on the plane. Even in heavy rain, as long as the weather isn't too extreme, I believe he can land."

For ordinary pilots, landing in heavy rain poses a certain degree of danger. However, his assistant believed that even in heavy rain, Xu Xian should be able to handle the situation safely.

"You really trust him! Wasn't he the one who caused the runway veer off the track?" Compared to the assistant's almost blind faith in Xu Xian, the area controller next to him didn't think so.

"I hope you can approach this issue with a professional eye. Outsiders are blindly pushing the blame onto Xu Xian, which is understandable given their limited professional capabilities. But we're all in the same circle, can't we please refrain from being so emotional?" Perhaps this assistant was one of Xu Xian's admirers; he directly refuted his colleague's questioning, leaving no room for negotiation.

"Ahem." At this somewhat awkward moment, the duty officer coughed twice and patted his assistant on the shoulder: "Go and contact Xingyou. After all, Xu Xian reported this matter to the authorities separately on the plane, so Xu Xian's actions on the plane should also be mentioned."

The assistant glared at the controller, but still obeyed the duty manager and silently walked away.

After the assistant left, the duty manager said to the area controller with some helplessness, "You know he's obsessed with Xu Xian, so why did you speak ill of Xu Xian in front of him?"

"Can't I say it? I'm just stating the facts." The area controller curled his lip. "Just a fame-seeker."

The duty officer was quite exasperated: "I don't understand why you have such a strong opinion about Xu Xian."

A hangar at the Luohang Flight Base.

Inside this secluded hangar, a C42 was parked, and Ye Qing and Ying Ruoqing stood side by side on one side of the aircraft.

Ying Ruoqing looked at the C42 with slight disappointment: "This model has already been finalized, it seems it's not suitable to equip it with laser weapons."

"When the C42 was being designed, laser weapons hadn't even appeared in prototype form yet, and there wasn't even a hint of them being weaponized. So, I didn't reserve any space for laser weapons at all. You probably expected this outcome." Ye Qing spread his hands, saying helplessly, "Looks like I made you come all this way for nothing."

If laser weapons were to be installed on the C-42, not only would the weapon mounting system need to be modified, but the airframe structure would also need to be altered. Furthermore, laser weapons have their own fire control system, which is incompatible with the C-42's fire control system. Therefore, if the C-42 were to use laser weapons, the fire control system would also need to be modified.

This series of modifications is practically equivalent to designing a completely new model. Designing a new model solely for installing laser weapons is clearly not cost-effective.

Unfortunately, during the C42 design phase, laser weapons showed no signs of becoming practical, and the crucial high-energy battery technology hadn't even begun to be mastered. Why would Ye Qing possibly reserve a space for a weapon that didn't even exist yet?

While the C42 might be compatible with some conventional weapons, laser weapons are completely different from other conventional weapons, and the C42's weapon system is simply incompatible.

Ye Qing truly hadn't expected that the core technology of laser weapons—high-energy batteries—could be mastered so quickly and without warning. Furthermore, laser weapons were weaponized in an extremely short period.

"It's alright, I was prepared for this anyway." Ying Ruoqing seemed only slightly disappointed, without much emotion. When she applied to come to Luohang to investigate the compatibility of installing laser weapons on the C42, Ying Ruoqing had roughly guessed this outcome.

The weaponization of laser weapons was completed too quickly; the domestic military had no idea that this would happen. It was basically foreseeable that the C42 did not have a reserved space for laser weapons.

Ye Qing was slightly surprised to see that Ying Ruoqing showed almost no emotional fluctuation; it seemed Ying Ruoqing had indeed anticipated this outcome: "So, you came all this way just to give up on me? Was it really necessary?"

"If it's just for the C42, then it's naturally unnecessary," Ying Ruoqing said calmly. "Laser weapons represent the future, so they naturally need to be paired with weapon platforms that represent the future. To be honest, the C42 is already outdated."

"Then why did you come?" Ye Qing said speechlessly.

"You still think I'm after the C42? What about your latest fighter jet? The one with plasma stealth and scramjet power?" Ying Ruoqing chuckled. "The super-maneuverability, supersonic cruise, short takeoff and landing, and stealth of fourth-generation fighters are, in my opinion, requirements for the fighter jet itself. What the future fifth-generation fighter will look like is still undecided, but you seem to think there's still room for development in hypersonic technology?"

After second-generation fighters broke the sound barrier, third-generation fighters began to abandon the pursuit of maximum speed and instead focused on upgrading the aircraft's flight control system, radar system, and overall performance balance.

While the definition of fourth-generation fighter jets is relatively clear, there is still no universally accepted conclusion on what constitutes a fifth-generation fighter jet. However, judging from Ye Qing's application of new technologies, Ying Ruoqing feels that Ye Qing is going further and further astray on the principle that "speed is the only way to win in martial arts."

If the scramjet engine is successfully developed, the fighter jet could reach a maximum speed of Mach 7. With this incredible speed alone, it could penetrate most of the world's air defense systems. Not to mention, Ye Qing also intends to equip the new fighter jet with plasma stealth technology.

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Ye Qing seemed a little unhappy. His research should have been top secret, yet Ying Ruoqing had found out. Even though he knew Ying Ruoqing was on his side, he still felt displeased.

"Chief Engineer Ye, you should understand that with a scramjet engine, the speed can reach Mach 7. At that speed, the fighter jet cannot carry external weapons. But if an internal weapons bay is used, the payload will be severely limited." Ying Ruoqing smiled and said, "Coincidentally, if laser weapons are installed, sufficient strike capability can be provided while ensuring the weapons are internally mounted? What do you think?"

In hypersonic Mach environments, external weapons can significantly impact an aircraft's aerodynamic performance. Therefore, to maintain the aircraft's streamlined shape, it must be converted to an internal weapons bay. However, once the weapons bay is internal, its payload capacity is severely limited. This would significantly reduce the aircraft's applicability.

Therefore, Ying Ruoqing's suggestion was to install the laser weapon on Ye Qing's latest fighter jet.

Ye Qing's eyes flickered slightly: "So this is where your target is?"

Ying Ruoqing smiled and said, "The missile-based determinant theory has been going on for far too long. Why don't we become the ones to break this ironclad rule?"

"Reject the missile-based decisive theory? That's quite a boast." Ye Qing let out a long breath. He hadn't expected Ying Ruoqing, a woman, to have such great ambitions.

Since the advent of second-generation fighter jets, the theory of missile dominance has emerged, and in the current environment, it has become a basic consensus. Machine guns, once used for dogfights, are now merely retained as symbolic objects. Air-to-air weaponry is now essentially monopolized by the missile family. But now, Ying Ruoqing aims to break this pattern.

"What's the difference between a person without dreams and a salted fish?" Ying Ruoqing laughed. "Do you want to be like Xu Xian, possessing talent but spending your days just thinking about how to drift through life?"

The conversation suddenly turned to Xu Xian, which caught Ye Qing somewhat off guard: "It seems there's some history between you and Xu Xian?"

Just then, Ye Qing's phone rang in his bag. He took it out and saw that it was Wang Chenchen's number, so he answered, "Captain Wang, what's up?"

Wang Chenchen's anxious voice came from the other end of the phone: "Ye Qing, Xu Xian is in trouble."

Inside the cockpit of the Letu 5641.

After reaching the designated altitude, the aircraft flew smoothly for a period of time. During this time, the three people in the cockpit continuously monitored the EGT value of the number one engine. Fortunately, the EGT of the number one engine, after dropping to around 600, stopped decreasing. Even though the N1 value of the number one engine fluctuated slightly, it didn't seem to pose a significant problem.

"It seems like engine number one has made it through." Seeing that engine number one was still running, the captain was practically thanking the heavens. He estimated that they would be descending soon, and if they could hold on until then, the rain would gradually subside and the temperature would gradually rise. The conditions then would be better than they were now.

Just then, the duty officer of Huacheng Area Control contacted the crew: "Lotoo 5641, according to meteorological data, it is expected to reach the boundary of the typhoon eye within five minutes. Please prepare for descent."

"Received." This was roughly what Xu Xian had calculated.

"Also, it's currently raining moderately at Zhangzhou Airport. We've contacted the airport authorities, and they're organizing the reopening, which should be completed before you arrive."

"Moderate rain!" Upon hearing that it was moderate rain, the captain immediately became excited: "Then we can land!"

"Okay, thank you." Xu Xian didn't say much more: "I'll let you know when I descend."

As he spoke, Xu Xian glanced at the captain: "Tell the back cabin to have them complete one last cabin check within three minutes to make sure all passengers have their seatbelts fastened. It'll be very bumpy as we pass through the eye of the typhoon."

This is the last calm before crossing the typhoon's eye boundary, so we must use this time to check on the passengers. Once we reach the eye boundary, the crew will probably be too busy looking after themselves to care for others.

"Oh, oh!" The captain, understanding his role as a mere tool, obediently called the cabin crew and relayed Xu Xian's words.

"Understood, Captain." The chief flight attendant readily agreed. "Captain, there's something I need to tell you. Flight attendant number three just reported to me that a passenger in first class contacted her, saying he works as a pilot and could offer assistance if the plane encounters any problems."

"First class?" Xu Xian frowned. He had been sleeping since boarding the plane and hadn't really noticed who else was in first class.

"Did you check his documents?" the captain asked.

"No, not that."

The captain thought for a moment: "When you're doing your cabin rounds later, check his documents. If there are no problems, report back to us. It might come in handy later."

"Received, I will check it myself," the flight attendant said.

After hanging up the phone, the captain didn't think much of it. It was normal to have an occasional pilot on board, and Xu Xian wasn't particularly concerned.

After handing over the instructions to the flight crew, Xu Xian turned to the co-pilot and asked, "What is the safe altitude for this route?"

The co-pilot was prepared: "4200 meters."

Xu Xian did not conduct any verification and directly applied to air traffic control to descend to an altitude of 4200 meters before beginning his descent.

Although there were still five minutes until they reached the edge of the typhoon's eye, the aircraft was already at a relatively high altitude and needed to descend earlier. Xu Xian had to ensure that they crossed the typhoon's eye boundary at a low altitude.

Because the right windshield was damaged, just in case, Xu Xian did not choose a high-speed descent, but maintained a speed of about Mach 0.72 to change the altitude.

As the plane descended rapidly, Xu Xian switched his inner ND to terrain display mode to prepare for obstacle crossing later.

"We'll use the safe altitude for our route as a guide when we cross the typhoon's eye boundary," Xu Xian instructed the other two people in the cockpit. Then, he turned to the co-pilot and reminded him again, "Memorize all the safe altitudes for the rest of the route. We might not have time to look up the charts later."

Soon we'll be approaching the edge of the typhoon's eye, and the plane will definitely experience severe turbulence, leaving no time to consult flight charts. While the turbulence isn't too severe yet, it's best to memorize the altitudes we'll be flying at.

"Brother, I've written it all down," the passenger assured confidently.

"Okay!" Xu Xian only said one word, without confirming anything with the co-pilot.

The moment Xu Xian finished speaking, the sky outside the windshield suddenly lit up, and a thick bolt of lightning struck almost at the nose of the plane, startling the three people in the cockpit into breaking out in a cold sweat.

The next moment, before the three could recover from their shock, the weather radar display on the left seat suddenly disappeared. The captain initially thought he had accidentally pressed the weather radar button, but when he pressed it again, the weather radar display still didn't reappear.

"What's going on?" The captain was stunned and subconsciously looked towards Xu Xian's side.

Xu Xian didn't even frown. To verify if the weather radar was still usable, he switched his own terrain display to weather radar mode. If the weather radar on Xu Xian's side could display the information, then the problem was likely only with the captain's display screen, and the weather radar itself was fine.

However, when Xu Xian switched the display mode to weather radar, the screen was completely blank.

The captain panicked when he realized that Xu Xian's radar also had no display. He quickly switched the weather radar's operating mode from weather + turbulence detection to the most basic weather detection. However, even with the change in operating mode, no weather data was displayed on their navigation screens.

The captain's mind went completely blank: "The weather radar is broken?"

At this moment, a faint grassy smell gradually filled the cockpit, and as time went by, the smell began to intensify.

"Is this ozone?" The captain immediately recognized the smell of ozone, and then quickly thought of the lightning that had struck so close by: "Could the lightning have damaged the weather radar on the nose of the plane?"

The recent lightning ionized a large amount of surrounding air, producing ozone. Since lightning can ionize air, it can also affect the electronic equipment on an aircraft. The weather radar is located in the radome at the nose of the plane! Wouldn't it be the first to be affected?

The captain thought about it more and more and felt that this was very likely, but if they didn't have weather radar, how would they fly around it?

"It's nothing." Despite the fact that the weather radar seemed to be broken, Xu Xian remained calm and unperturbed, seemingly unconcerned. He silently switched the display mode to terrain display, but the next second, Xu Xian's eyebrows twitched a few times.

He discovered that the terrain display couldn't be brought up either!

Xu Xian found it acceptable that the weather radar was unusable, but when the terrain display also became useless, his face immediately darkened.

Before Xu Xian could react, the main warning light suddenly came on. The three people in the cockpit almost instinctively looked up to find which malfunction light was on.

"The windshield is overheating!" the passenger exclaimed. Their fears about localized overheating of the windshield seemed to be coming true.

The lightning strike occurred too close to the aircraft, ionizing a large area of ​​the surrounding airspace and causing a sharp increase in electrical charge in the area the aircraft passed through.

The arc of electricity from the windshield almost covered the entire area at the moment the lightning struck, which must have caused the windshield to overheat.

But this isn't the end of it.

Xu Xian's ears twitched slightly; he keenly sensed the engine's sound gradually fading. He subconsciously shifted his gaze from above to below the DU, and in that instant, his pupils contracted.

At some point, the EGT of Engine 1 had dropped below 400, while the N1 of Engine 1 was continuing to decrease, creating a thrust difference of 30 compared to Engine 2!

(End of this chapter)