Legendary Captain

Lian Shanxue was initially just surprised by Xu Xian's vast knowledge, offering a small exclamation in front of him. However, Lian Shanxue's eyes were naturally watery, and a closer look revealed a pitiful, almost ethereal quality. This was what infuriated Xu Xian the most. What time was it?

"Look at the DU!" Xu Xian shouted softly, trying to draw Lian Shanxue's attention back.

Lian Shanxue was confused. Hadn't she just privately praised Xu Xian? She knew what the level of a student like Xu Xian was like. It was incomparable to the level Xu Xian was currently displaying.

Although she didn't understand why Xu Xian was so fierce, Lian Shanxue at least listened to Xu Xian on the simulator, immediately sitting up straight and focusing on the DU data.

Just now, Lian Shanxue saw the instructor operating the control panel; he was setting up startup faults.

"Watch closely!" This was the first time Lian Shanxue had experienced a starting failure, and the instructor kindly reminded her.

Compared to Xu Xian, whose expression remained normal, Lian Shanxue appeared slightly nervous.

After Xu Xian lifted the starter lever for engine number one, Lian Shanxue remembered what Xu Xian had said earlier: pay attention to changes in fuel flow, EGT, and lubricating oil pressure. When checking the EGT, Lian Shanxue noticed something unusual: "Is this the normal rate of increase for EGT?"

So far, Lian Shanxue has only witnessed a normal start-up once, so even though she feels that the EGT seems to be rising a bit too fast, she is still not sure.

"This is definitely not normal! It's much faster than the normal rate before! This means the EGT is rising too quickly," Xu Xian said. "I feel that if it continues to rise at this rate and exceeds 550, I will cut off the engine. Otherwise, even if I cut off the starter lever, there is still a risk of exceeding the starting limit. After all, the starting EGT limit is 725, which is not much different. Even if I cut off the starter lever, the EGT will still rise for a while, so it's not impossible to break through EGT 725."

While Xu Xian was explaining to Lian Shanxue, he was multitasking, focusing his attention on the changes in the EGT value. The moment the EGT exceeded 550, he immediately cut off the engine start lever.

Just as Xu Xian had predicted, even after the engine start lever was disconnected, the EGT value still spiked for a while. It reached around 680 before stopping its ascent, and then quickly began to fall back.

"550?" Lian Shanxue was somewhat puzzled and didn't quite agree with Xu Xian's statement. She seemed to have never seen any evidence about the EGT550's starter lever in that manual.

Lian Shanxue's current knowledge base is certainly not as extensive as Xu Xian's, but she's not completely ignorant either. She has a solid foundation in mainstream knowledge points. It's just that Xu Xian's knowledge is so broad and diverse that Lian Shanxue appears somewhat ignorant.

If the decision concerns stopping the engine start, the operating manual should contain information about the critical point. However, Lian Shanxue is certain that at least in the SOP starting procedure and the section on stopping the start in abnormal situations, there is no accurate description of when to cut off the engine start lever when the EGT rises too quickly.

The manual describes EGT hot start as "rapidly approaching or exceeding the limit"!

Exceeding the limits is easy to understand; once the limits are exceeded, cutting off the engine start lever is perfectly reasonable. However, the manual doesn't specifically mention "rapidly approaching"—how rapid? How close? It seems like all of this is left to the pilot's discretion!

Lian Shanxue reads books in exactly the same way as Xu Xian; she doesn't just skim through them, but pays close attention to everything, including the annotations. That's why Lian Shanxue has this question.

"Could it be in one of the other manuals again?" Lian Shanxue's first thought wasn't to suspect Xu Xian, but to doubt herself. At least up to today, Xu Xian's performance was enough to live up to Lian Shanxue's trust.

Boeing manuals are numerous, and even Shan Xue only focuses on the most common SOPs, followed by FCOM. This is one of the reasons why she didn't know the power-on procedure before. As for the remaining manuals like FCTM and FOM, she only glanced at them. After all, human strength has its limits, and we're not computers.

She strongly suspected that Xu Xian was a humanoid computer, how could he know so many obscure things? Some of them she had never even heard of, such as the value of 550.

Although Lian Shanxue had some questions, she did not voice them, because she was not allowed to interrupt the process after the start-up was terminated.

"When I cut the starter lever, the engine will need to start cold, so you need to start the timer the moment I cut the starter lever. This way, we can save a lot of time," Xu Xian said, pressing the timer button on his clock. Lian Shanxue also pressed the timer button, seemingly understanding.

"Start working on the engine start-stop checklist now!" Xu Xian called out the checklist's name, adding, "You know where it is, right? The APU section."

"I know!" Lian Shanxue retorted angrily. Did Xu Xianzheng just treat her like a clueless vase? She had reviewed the quick checklist countless times before the initial modifications. While she wouldn't claim complete mastery, she at least wouldn't have trouble finding the checklist.

Xu Xian's words deeply wounded Lian Shanxue's pride. Looking at Lian Shanxue from the side, he saw that her cheeks were bulging, making her look like an inflated pufferfish.

"Looks like she's really angry!" Xu Xian thought with a wry smile. "She's got quite a strong sense of pride..."

Lian Shanxue lived up to her previous efforts and quickly found the checklist for the failed startup. She then handed over the tablet to Xu Xian to review together.

Xu Xian waved his hand: "No need, just look carefully yourself!"

Xu Xian didn't even look at the checklist for stopping the engine start, and said directly, "The first step is to disconnect the engine start lever. This is a memory item! We already disconnected it!"

Lian Shanxue nodded in agreement.

Xu Xian still hadn't looked at the check-up form, and continued, "The next step isn't about memorizing anything. Step two is an option: whether to turn on the ignition switch in the ground position or the off position."

Lian Shanxue looked at Xu Xian in surprise. Just as Xu Xian said, apart from the first step being a memorization item, all the subsequent steps were non-memorization items, yet Xu Xian remembered them clearly.

"When we switched the engine start lever, N2 hadn't reached 56%, so the starter switch hadn't automatically switched to the off position yet; it's still in the ground position." As Xu Xian spoke, he pointed to the starter switch, which, just as he had said, was still in the ground position.

"According to the checklist, if the ignition switch is in the ground position, what's the next step?" Xu Xian smiled faintly: "Run the engine for sixty seconds while it's cold! So, now you know why I had you time it!"