Legendary Captain

Lian Shanxue, her entire body tense, was completely focused on piloting the plane, even feeling a slight sense of pride in her "precise" control. As for Xu Xian? Well, that was rather annoying!

She's busy operating the system, yet she keeps talking to herself. Doesn't she realize that this is affecting her? She's so oblivious!

Lian Shanxue felt a push on her shoulder and a surge of anger rose within her. Was this ever going to end? Words weren't enough; now they were physically assaulting her?

But the anger that had just risen vanished without a trace with Xu Xian's words.

"My dear lady, we're at 400 feet!"

"400 feet!" Lian Shanxue's heart skipped a beat, and she knew something was wrong. She had been so engrossed in piloting the aircraft that she had completely forgotten about the single-engine procedure. It turned out that Xu Xian had been reminding her not to disturb her, but to signal that she was about to begin the single-engine procedure.

Lian Shanxue, who had wronged Xu Xian, blushed instantly.

"Navigation...course selection, stay on one side!" Lian Shanxue stammered out the next instruction.

Xu Xian laughed and said, "So our young lady knows how to do it? Then why did you just 'hmm' when I asked you before? What does 'hmm' mean?"

Although Xu Xian was joking with Lian Shanxue, his hands were still moving. Following Lian Shanxue's instructions, he pressed the heading selection button.

Lian Shanxue's requirement was to stay on one side, but the plane was currently slightly to the left, so Xu Xian turned slightly to the right to correct the flight path.

Xu Xian's words made Lian Shanxue feel even more ashamed. At the beginning of the training, she confidently claimed that she had read the single-shot procedure, but in the actual training, she proved to be somewhat useless.

However, it cannot be said that Lian Shanxue was completely unaware of the single-shot program. It's just that she had a problem with attention allocation; under the high-pressure environment of single-shot operation, she couldn't spare more energy to direct the single-shot program.

"Shall we diagnose the problem now?"

This sentence was originally supposed to be in a commanding tone, but coming from Lian Shanxue's mouth, it sounded more like a negotiation.

Xu Xian glanced at Lian Shanxue with amusement, only to meet her gaze. Lian Shanxue looked like a startled rabbit. She then turned her gaze from the top and bottom of the screen back to the top of the screen.

"Are you using the PFD to diagnose engine malfunctions?" Xu Xian asked with a smile.

Lian Shanxue had no choice but to turn her gaze back to the top of her head, but this inevitably led to a clash with Xu Xian's eyes, making her feel breathless.

At this point, the aircraft was still in manual flight mode. This prevented Lian Shanxue from focusing her attention on diagnosing the malfunction, as she had to dedicate some of her energy to maintaining the single-engine operation.

The first priority in flying is maintaining the aircraft's condition! Keeping the aircraft in a stable condition is the prerequisite for all subsequent actions. If you can't even control the aircraft's condition, then there's no point in talking about any subsequent actions.

Xu Xian noticed that Lian Shanxue frequently switched back to the PFD to check the aircraft's status, so he asked, "Are you planning to keep flying manually?"

"What else?" Lian Shanxue asked, her head full of questions.

"Good heavens!" Xu Xian said helplessly, "Do you skip lines when you read? Doesn't the single-processor procedure in the SOP recommend using autopilot?"

"But this is training! Shouldn't we be doing more manual flight?" Lian Shanxue said innocently.

Xu Xian met Lian Shanxue's clear, star-like eyes, and feeling embarrassed to speak harshly, he could only try to persuade her in a gentle tone: "But you're taking up too much energy with manual flight right now, and you don't have the energy to focus on the program! Can we familiarize ourselves with the program first, and then talk about manual flight?"

Looking at Xu Xian's earnest instructive manner, Lian Shanxue's lips gradually curved into a smile: "Okay!"

Fortunately, Lian Shanxue listened to Xu Xian, who quickly instructed: "Stabilize the aircraft's status, engage autopilot, and keep the control wheel level."

What is the perfect amount of steering input? It is the amount of steering input that is optimal when the steering wheel is kept level after the autopilot is engaged.

"If you get tired of pedaling, you can adjust the rudder balance a bit, or tell me and I can pedal for you for a while," Xu Xian instructed.

It's not unreasonable for someone else to help with steering; after all, people aren't machines, and their legs will get tired after steering for a long time, so asking for help is understandable. As long as it's not for an extended period, instructors or inspectors generally won't say anything.

"I know!" Lian Shanxue didn't want Xu Xian to treat her like a baby who needed to be taken care of by everything, even though in the end she might still have to accept Xu Xian's help.

Lian Shanxue adjusted the aircraft and finally engaged autopilot, also slightly adjusting the rudder trim to make rudder input easier.

"Alright! Now, can you diagnose what kind of malfunction this is?" Xu Xian saw that Lian Shanxue was fine, so he began to ask her to identify the engine malfunction.

Lian Shanxue carefully examined each data point of the engine: "It should be a simple engine failure, right?"

"What makes you say that?" Xu Xian asked calmly, wanting to know the basis for Lian Shanxue's statement. He didn't want Lian Shanxue to simply be lucky.

Lian Shanxue pointed to the N1 index in Shanghai: "Isn't there still a chance for a reversal?"

"So you knew!" Xu Xian originally thought Lian Shanxue was just pretending, but now it seems she really was prepared!

Even after engine failure, although there is no power to rotate the engine blades, the presence of airflow will cause them to continue rotating at a low speed, much like windmill blades. This will be reflected in the engine data as an N1 index still being recorded.

The N1 index is actually just due to wind rotation, not because the engine still has residual power.

"That's right!" Lian Shanxue wrinkled her little nose, looking very proud.

"So what do we do next?"

Without hesitation, Lian Shanxue said, "If it's just an engine failure, there won't be any memory entries. So, contact the control tower first, announce PANPAN, inform us of the engine failure, request to keep the engine on standby to handle the fault, and explain your intention to return to base later."

It seems that Lian Shanxue was indeed well-prepared. Apart from being a little slow to react at the beginning due to nervousness, her subsequent performance was really good.

They even know that an engine failure is declared as a "PANPAN" announcement, not a "MAYDAY" announcement. The difference between these two is something only someone who has truly studied single-engine procedures can understand.