Legendary Captain

Chapter 378 The Mutinous Missile Destroyer (Part 2)

"103, the deck is cleared and you may proceed with the landing approach." After seeing that the aircraft had reached 600 meters, which is the minimum holding line altitude, Li Cang granted landing clearance to aircraft 103.

"103, received!" The clear female voice remained unchanged, as if the damaged wing would not cause her any emotional fluctuation.

After receiving landing clearance, the aircraft had just passed point one. At this point, aircraft 103 did not immediately make a continuous left turn, because the approach phase usually begins at point three. In other words, disengagement from the holding line usually occurs at point three, rather than at any point on the holding line.

Point 3 is located exactly at the nine o'clock position of the aircraft carrier, and the direction of the aircraft is exactly opposite to that of the aircraft carrier. At this time, after the 103 aircraft passes point 3, it will begin to descend on its own, and then turn left at an angle greater than that of the opposite direction of the aircraft carrier.

The 103 aircraft chose a course that was 120 degrees from the carrier's heading, departed from its original route, turned left in an arc, and finally flew to a point three nautical miles behind the carrier, at a horizontal distance of 0.1 nautical miles and an altitude of about 350 knots.

During this turn, it is absolutely crucial to stay within the five-nautical-mile carrier control zone; otherwise, the waiting route will have to be restarted, which would severely impact the carrier's recovery efficiency.

As it cut past the bow of the aircraft carrier, aircraft 103 began to turn left, cutting into the three-sided starting position.

It's important to note here that since 103 is a single aircraft, not flying in formation, other aircraft don't need to be considered. If it were flying in formation, after the lead aircraft gives the wingman the disengagement signal, it would be the first to turn left to disengage. The remaining wingmen would maintain level flight, and after a ten-second countdown, the second wingman would do the same as the lead aircraft, rolling to the left to disengage. The remaining wingmen would then follow this pattern, with ten-second intervals between each wingman.

Therefore, during formation flying and recovery, if the lead aircraft's left turn and disengagement is too late, subsequent wingmen will also be late. This could cause the wingmen to lose control of the carrier due to excessive level flight distance. Thus, the lead aircraft must have extremely precise timing in its disengagement; otherwise, it will endanger its following wingmen.

With this operation, when all the aircraft in the formation enter the trilateral route, there will be an interval of about thirty seconds between each aircraft.

However, this time the 103 aircraft was not flying in formation, so it had a high degree of freedom. As long as it did not leave the carrier's control area, it would not be a problem to make a left turn to leave a little later.

When turning left to break away from the three sides, you must maintain a constant height, and at the same time, you can reduce the throttle and hold the pole to slow down.

Once the speed drops below 250 knots, the landing gear and flaps can be deployed to begin establishing the landing configuration.

During this process, in addition to maintaining a constant altitude of 800 feet, the horizontal distance between the pilot and the carrier's heading must be precisely maintained at 1.2 nautical miles after balancing into the three-legged approach; this is a fixed value. If the pilot deviates significantly from this value after balancing, it is undoubtedly an unqualified landing pattern. If the instructor were grading the aircraft, this single criterion would be an immediate disqualification.

The pilot of the 103 aircraft was highly skilled. On the radar screen, Li Cang could clearly see that the horizontal distance between the aircraft signal point and the aircraft carrier's heading was exactly 1.2 nautical miles, without any deviation.

Li Cang knew who the pilot on plane 103 was, and he wasn't too surprised by such precise maneuvers.

After entering the three-sided approach, the pilot of 103 began to gradually descend 600 feet while adjusting the throttle so that the velocity vector was within the E-mark of the angle of attack brackets, which would keep the aircraft at a suitable approach angle of attack.

At this point, the aircraft should consider when to turn into the four-way junction. Timing this turn is a skill in itself. Turning too early will result in a short five-way junction, hindering the aircraft's final corrections. Turning too late, on the other hand, may result in the aircraft moving out of the carrier's control area, which is also not permitted.

Unlike short takeoffs and landings at land-based airports, one of the biggest differences in carrier landings is that the carrier landing point is mobile, and pilots need to calculate lead time.

Generally, two to three degrees after cutting past the carrier's tarmac, the pilot begins the turn to the left while continuing to descend, maintaining a bank angle of approximately 25 to 30 degrees. At the beginning of the turn, do not rush to locate the carrier. Due to limited visibility, pilots may need to expend considerable energy to visually locate the carrier, diverting significant attention and causing them to lose focus on cockpit instruments. Therefore, only begin focusing on the outside as the pilot approaches the right turn to the right, thus preventing the loss of instrument readings.

"103, C18E, visual lights, fuel 3.3!" After turning to the fifth approach, aircraft 103 gave its final landing report. At this point, it is necessary to report not only the call sign, but also the aircraft type and remaining fuel.

As for the so-called visual lighting, it refers to the visual Fresnel lens navigation lighting system, which is often called "fleshball" abroad!

"Roger that! After stopping, keep the aircraft stationary and let the damage control team and maintenance personnel take over!" the tower commanded.

Normally, after landing, the aircraft will glide away from the landing area under guidance, folding its wings at the same time. However, this time the aircraft was damaged, and only by having professionals take over the aircraft as soon as possible can the potential danger be minimized. Therefore, the control tower ordered 103 to stop the aircraft as soon as possible and then hand it over to the damage control team and maintenance personnel.

This is similar to an emergency situation where a passenger plane lands and evacuates from the runway. You can't expect the pilots to taxi the plane to its parking position after it's been severely damaged, can you? What if something goes wrong during taxiing? Who would be responsible?

"103, received!" After turning into the fifth leg, the pilot of aircraft 103 was facing a direction that was neither the angled deck course 345 nor the carrier's course 355, but rather 350, which is between the two. This involves the technique of landing on an angled deck.

Because aircraft carriers are mobile, the pentagonal runway where the angled flight deck is located also runs parallel and forward continuously. Therefore, pilots cannot directly use the angled flight deck's runway; instead, they must fly a distance between the carrier's course and the angled flight deck's runway, based on the carrier's course. This is reflected on the head-up display as the velocity vector not being on the runway itself, but slightly to the right of the runway.

The reason why carrier-based aircraft need additional landing qualification certification is that the landing environment of an aircraft carrier is very different from that of a land-based airport. A pilot who can take off and land normally at a land-based airport cannot be transferred to an aircraft carrier platform without any difference. The difference is too great, and the procedures are also quite different, which is why additional qualification certification is required.

The landing commander starts timing after the aircraft enters the center of the crosshairs. The optimal time from the start of timing to the completion of landing should be between 15 and 18 seconds. If this time differs too much from the appropriate time, the landing commander may even instruct the aircraft to go around.

The main reason is that if this time deviation is too large, it means that there is a serious problem with the aircraft's final descent trajectory or descent rate. If a go-around is not attempted, some unpredictable dangers may occur during the landing.

On the deck, Xu Xian watched with lingering reluctance as a C18, trailing a long plume of smoke, approached from the side of the plane. Xu Xian silently counted in his mind, and in just sixteen seconds, the plane landed precisely on the deck.

The moment the aircraft touched down, its engines roared loudly for a short period of time, a sign that military-grade thrust had been applied.

Unlike landing at a land-based airport, when an aircraft carrier lands, it does not reduce the throttle to idle at the moment of touchdown, but instead immediately increases the thrust to military level.

The so-called military thrust is the maximum thrust excluding afterburner. This is to prevent carrier-based aircraft from detaching. Once a carrier-based aircraft detaches and the throttle is reduced to a slow speed, the short runway of the aircraft carrier is simply not enough to allow the carrier-based aircraft to accelerate back to the appropriate takeoff thrust. In this case, the carrier-based aircraft can only dive into the sea.

To prevent this from happening, when touching down, the pilot should not reduce the throttle, but rather increase it. This way, even if the aircraft detaches, it can still pull back up.

However, the aircraft's landing maneuver was quite impressive. The hook accurately caught the second arresting cable, and the aircraft was suddenly pulled to a stop. At the same time, feeling that the aircraft had caught the arresting cable, the pilot immediately reduced the throttle.

What a beautiful landing!

As instructed, the pilot immediately shut down the engine and turned off all external lights.

After the roar of the engines gradually subsided, a small group of people first pushed an iron ladder against the cockpit of the aircraft, allowing the pilots inside to come out first.

As the canopy opened, the pilot stepped out, removed her helmet, and revealed a beautiful face.

"A woman?" Xu Xian was taken aback. He hadn't expected the pilot inside to be a woman. There were female pilots in Hainan Airlines?

After the pilots emerged, two people confirmed that the plane was generally safe. Only then did more people gradually gather around. Otherwise, if a large number of people rushed forward and the plane was still in danger, wouldn't the damage be too great?

Therefore, after a small number of people roughly determined that the aircraft was not in any specific danger, more people gathered around to deal with it.

"A woman? What are you talking about? She's Hainan Airlines' most beautiful girl!" The maintenance worker looked at Xu Xian strangely. "You don't know that?"

"Should I know?" Xu Xian rolled his eyes. He wasn't exactly a gossip, and besides, he hadn't been here long. How could he possibly know everything? He said unhappily, "But, is she the only female pilot on the entire South Ship?"

The maintenance crew member pointed a finger: "To be precise, she's not just the flower of our southern fleet, she's the flower of all three fleets, understand?"

"Hmm? The most beautiful woman in the three major fleets?" Xu Xian recalled that there were too many people and the distance was too far, so Xu Xian could only roughly distinguish the gender. As for what she looked like, whether she was pretty or not, and how pretty she was, Xu Xian had no idea.

However, since it is known as the most beautiful of the three fleets, it must be quite good-looking.

In civil aviation, female pilots are already a rarity, and Xu Xian never expected there to be female pilots in the carrier-based aircraft unit. Even if there were female pilots, they would most likely be in the helicopter squadron, but she was in a fighter squadron, which was completely beyond Xu Xian's expectations.

After watching her enter the island superstructure, Xu Xian casually asked the maintenance crew, "What's your name?"

"Huh? Who? Oh, it's her! Qin Qing! What do you think? Nice name, right? It sounds really good!" The maintenance worker's mouth stretched from ear to ear, and he seemed to really believe in the title of "the most beautiful girl in Hainan Airlines".

"Qin Qing?" Xu Xian clicked his tongue. "She does sound very refined."

In the captain's cabin, Captain Wu Yinian and Air Wing Commander Xiao Nian both stared at Qin Qing in shock. Wu Yinian frowned: "You mean another rebellion has broken out in Chenyan Kingdom?"

The word "again" is particularly insightful.

"That's right, at least that's what I've observed visually." Qin Qing nodded, his gaze serious.

Commander Xiao Nian of the carrier air wing said helplessly, "There are really not many peaceful countries in the south. It's only been a few years since the last change of government, and problems are starting to arise again. In addition, I heard from the Western Air Force that the Konbaung Kingdom in the southwest is also in great turmoil. There is really no peace around our borders."

"However chaotic things are, that's their internal affair, as long as it doesn't affect our people. Konbang is alright, but the location of Chenyan is more sensitive. We have a major trade route right next to Chenyan. If Chenyan starts to have internal strife again, it might affect this sea route." Wu Yinian's expression was also not very good.

To be honest, there are many countries in the world, and unrest occurs in many places. Chenyan Kingdom has little interaction with China, so it certainly can't be considered an ally. Wu Yinian isn't the kind of person with an overflowing saintly heart who's always thinking about world peace. He's a soldier; he always thinks about the interests of his own country.

Whether Chen Yan Kingdom is in turmoil or not is of no interest to him whatsoever. However, Chen Yan Kingdom's location is rather critical, situated near an international shipping route, through which domestic trade accounts for a significant portion. If internal strife in Chen Yan Kingdom were to affect this international shipping route, it would be a severe blow to domestic international trade, which would cause enormous damage to national interests.

That's something Wu Yinian can't accept!

"What exactly happened at that time?" Wu Yinian asked Qin Qing.

"It was two destroyers that were engaged in combat. They weren't in the territorial waters of Chenyan Kingdom, but in international waters," Qin Qing said calmly. "My initial plan was to approach and observe them closely, but unfortunately, I was hit by a stray bullet, and my wing was damaged, so I had to return."

Wu Yinian and Xiao Nian's expressions changed; the fighting had reached international waters. It seemed the internal strife was much larger than expected.

Since the founding of the nation after shedding its colonial status, the country of Chenyan has experienced a coup almost every ten years, with the national regime changing hands repeatedly, and there has never been a peaceful period.

However, previous coups in Chenyan Kingdom had been relatively small in scale, rarely resulting in large-scale conflicts. Therefore, Wu Yinian was not surprised by Qin Qing's account of the internal strife in Chenyan, although his estimate of the scale of the strife was somewhat conservative.

If Chen Yanguo's own navy can engage in a war of words with destroyers on the high seas, then Wu Yinian has every reason to suspect that its air force and army are not the kind of people who just watch from the sidelines.

In fact, compared to the turmoil in the Air Force and the Army, the unrest in the Navy is what worries Wu Yinian more.

The army, needless to say, cannot cross the sea to come. As for the air force of Chenyan Kingdom, it is not very good either. The aircraft are relatively old and they are basically in the role of airport protectors. They can barely defend the homeland, but if you want to go out to sea to fight, that would be asking too much.

However, as an island nation, the Kingdom of Yan has a relatively strong navy among its three armed forces. If there is turmoil in the navy, it will truly affect that international shipping route, which would be extremely serious.

"To be honest, given their own country's chaos, they shouldn't dare to do anything to our merchant ships, right?" Xiao Nian said. "Anyone with a modicum of sense wouldn't dare to provoke our nation, would they?"

Wu Yinian was somewhat irritated: "Of course not, but how many of those warlords in Chenyan Kingdom are of sound mind?"

Xiao Nian was taken aback, and after thinking about it, he really had no reason to refute it. Could someone who could turn a coup into a systematic plan be judged by normal human standards?

Normally, a small country like Chenyan would be courting death by provoking a powerful nation. Yet, there are indeed those who can only be described as insane. Entrusting the safety of international maritime routes to the sanity of such people is simply unacceptable.

Xiao Hua pondered for a moment, then refuted Wu Yinian, which was taken as agreement: "Then how should we say it?"

Wu Yinian's mind worked quickly: "I will report the situation to the Naval Department. The safest course of action now is to have the Ministry of Foreign Affairs inform the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to see what the specific situation is like there. A great power should also act like a great power. It seems a bit excessive for us to react like a frightened bird when a small country is in turmoil. Let's wait for news from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

Knowing yourself and your enemy is always the right thing to do, no matter where you are. What if those two destroyers from the other country, Yan State, are conducting combat exercises in international waters?

Of course, this possibility is virtually nonexistent.

When a country conducts military exercises, it usually announces the exercise area to prevent civilian aircraft or ships from entering. Moreover, even if it's a secret exercise, according to Qin Qing, it involves real gunfire and missile exchanges. If this is an exercise, then Chen Yan Kingdom really knows how to play games.

"In the meantime, increase patrols. Also, if the Naval Headquarters issues orders, we might have to carry out escort missions, so the operations department needs to get busy." Wu Yinian said, looking at Xiao Nian, "If things really get to some sensitive points, we might have to show our strength."

Xiao Nian, the commander of the carrier air wing, also serves as the strike commander of the entire carrier strike group. He controls the main offensive force of the entire carrier strike group, and it is definitely within Xiao Nian's responsibility to draw his sword when facing the enemy.

As the strike commander in the aircraft carrier command system, Xiao Nian has never been afraid to draw his sword. He said coldly, "That depends on whether those people in Chenyan Kingdom understand the principles. If they don't, I don't mind teaching them a lesson."

Just as Xiao Nian finished speaking, Wu Yinian said to him, "It seems necessary to communicate with Jin Dongcheng and Cheng Yuan. We need to strengthen our overall defense."

Kim Dong-sung is the squadron leader of the cruiser fleet and also serves as the air defense commander of the carrier strike group. He is currently stationed on the cruiser, not on the aircraft carrier. Cheng Yuan, on the other hand, is the squadron leader of the destroyer fleet and also serves as the underwater commander of the carrier strike group, overseeing anti-submarine operations. He is also not on the aircraft carrier, but on the destroyer.

Since there is internal strife in Chenyan, in order to prevent the possibility of some mentally unstable lunatics over there, they need to temporarily strengthen the fleet's defenses to avoid making a fool of themselves.

"Should we tell the commander?" Xiao Nian asked.

The head of the entire carrier strike group, the commander of the entire fleet, the only rear admiral, is not here now, but has gone to the South Fleet Command.

"Okay!" Wu Yinian nodded. Although he was the captain of the aircraft carrier and also served as the surface combat commander, his rank was the same as Xiao Nian, Jin Dongcheng, and Cheng Yuan—a naval colonel—and there was no obvious superior-subordinate relationship in their positions.

In special circumstances, the aircraft carrier is always the main force of the entire strike group, and it's not a problem for the captain to temporarily take command. However, it's not ideal for the carrier strike group to keep commanding all the time; the commander of the carrier strike group should usually give the order.

Wu Yinian then said to Qin Qing, "Go back and rest first. Once you're refreshed, go over the matter again and see if there's anything you've overlooked. Write a report and submit it!"

"I know!" Qin Qing nodded. This was the normal procedure, and there were no surprises.

Wu Yinian suddenly remembered something and smiled, "By the way, your application for the upcoming aircraft carrier tour has been approved. You can tell your mother the good news now."

"Really!" Qin Qing was unusually excited, showing an expression befitting her age for the first time.

"Really." Wu Yinian smiled and waved. "Go ahead."

After seeing Qin Qing off, Xiao Nian was all smiles. In this carrier strike group that was almost entirely male, the presence of a red figure like Qin Qing was truly refreshing.

"By the way, the commander spoke to me yesterday. The fleet commanders will be coming to observe the next anti-ship exercise. You should focus on strengthening your anti-ship target practice recently, so as not to let the exercise fall short." Wu Yinian said with a smile.

Xiao Nian felt no pressure about the leaders observing the daily drills; this wasn't uncommon for him, and he was used to it. He simply nodded and said, "It's normal, don't worry, there won't be any problems."

Xiao Nian remained confident in his carrier-based aircraft force and felt no pressure whatsoever from the fact that his superiors were coming to observe.

"I definitely have confidence in you, but this time it's a little different from before. The commander has designated the First Squadron to conduct the anti-ship drills," Wu Yinian said.

"First Squadron? Designated personnel? What's the reason?" Xiao Nian asked curiously, as this had never happened before.

Wu Yinian laughed and said, "Isn't it because the leaders want to see Xu Xian?"

(End of this chapter)