Legendary Captain

"Manual flight? Me?" Xu Xian pointed directly at himself, almost doubting he'd heard correctly. What did that mean?

Han Qi looked at the startled Xu Xian and laughed, "Yeah! Don't you want to fly?"

"Are you sure you want me to handle this? I'm not one of your company's pilots!" Xu Xian asked hesitantly.

Han Qi didn't seem to care much: "If you didn't have your credentials, I wouldn't even let you in. But since you have them, why can't we, as fellow professionals, let you fly for a bit? I'm actually more curious about the skill level of the Star Travel Aviation trainees!"

This attempt to probe Xingyou Airlines' true capabilities was a sudden whim of Han Qi's. The key reason was that after witnessing his own co-pilot's incompetent performance, he was eager to know the skill level of pilots from other airlines.

If everyone else is a useless person, he'll feel a little better.

This tactic of using psychological victory is truly masterful.

"But... are you sure there won't be any problems?" Xu Xian was still a little worried. This was another company's plane, and he didn't want to cause any trouble. He just wanted to stay quietly until landing, and then leave quietly, without getting involved too much.

Han Qi: "You don't just want to sit here like a block of wood, do you? Since you're already here, hurry up."

Since we're already here! What a versatile excuse for persuasion!

Pressed by Han Qi, Xu Xian had no choice but to say, "If I make any mistakes, Captain, you'll have to help me correct them."

He didn't want to create any flight safety issues, because that would be a huge problem.

Upon hearing Xu Xian's reassurance, Han Qi chuckled and said, "Don't worry, don't worry, there won't be any problems. Just fly with peace of mind."

Judging from Xu Xian's insecure look, he's probably a useless fellow. It seems the other companies' pilots aren't much better! Han Qi felt a little better immediately!

"Captain, shall we take over controls?"

Han Qi smiled and replied, "Hand over control!"

"Take control!" Xu Xian immediately disconnected the autopilot and autothrottle, and began manual flight.

This was his first time handling a real aircraft since his previous training at Hailing Airport. To be honest, Xu Xian really didn't understand the point of manually flying in this level flight state. Wasn't this something anyone could fly?

Han Qi was unaware of Xu Xian's thoughts; he was merely observing Xu Xian's piloting actions with a vague, unintentional attention. He discovered that Xu Xian's senses were incredibly sharp; he could prevent even the slightest deviation from the aircraft's trajectory and correct any existing minor deviations.

The so-called stable airflow at high altitudes is not truly without any waves; there will be unpredictable turbulence. It's just that these turbulent flows are much smaller compared to certain turbulent areas.

Where can you find an absolutely stable airflow zone? So it's normal for airplanes to experience irregular ups and downs.

Most junior first officers struggle to gauge the appropriate correction amounts, often resulting in back-and-forth adjustments. For example, when an aircraft experiences brief deviations from its altitude due to turbulence, the first officer may react slowly, only realizing the error after a significant deviation has occurred. However, by then, the deviation is already substantial, requiring a relatively large correction.

This is where the co-pilot's lack of precision became apparent. Everyone knows to pull back on the stick when the plane starts to climb, but how much to pull back is a skill. Co-pilots, especially junior ones, often don't know the appropriate amount of correction.

They rely entirely on intuition! Of course, that's not to say there's anything wrong with relying on intuition; after all, pilots rely on intuition for their piloting skills, right? However, the crucial point is that the co-pilot's intuition is often not that accurate.

They might make too small corrections, causing the aircraft to remain too high even after pushing the stick. However, more often than not, the co-pilots make too large corrections. This is because novice pilots tend to have overly aggressive maneuvers.

If the correction is excessive, the aircraft will shift from being too high to too low. At that point, if the co-pilot pulls back on the stick and doesn't control the force well, the aircraft will lift off again.

The turbulence initially only caused the plane to lift off once, but under the co-pilot's control, it was turned into a rollercoaster-like situation. This instability was not caused by external factors, but purely by the pilot's own improper operation.

This situation mostly stems from insufficient practice; with prolonged flight experience, a feel for the controls will develop. Therefore, this rarely happens to senior first officers and captains.

However, this common scenario did not happen to Xu Xian.

If Xu Xian hadn't already admitted that he was a trainee, Han Qi would have mistaken him for the experienced co-pilot.

Han Qi astutely noticed that Xu Xian could sense the slightest deviation in the aircraft. He immediately stopped the emerging deviation and applied corrective measures to bring the aircraft back to its original state.

This correction was almost perfectly accurate, so precise that Han Qi felt even some high-ranking co-pilots couldn't achieve it. Therefore, during Xu Xian's piloting, the aircraft experienced only barely perceptible fluctuations, so minute as to be negligible.

Perhaps it was truly a gift from heaven; Xu Xian possessed an unimaginable innate talent for aircraft control. During the simulator check after leaving the squadron, Xu Xian perfectly controlled the rudder and extra throttle, as if he had rehearsed it beforehand. So much so that even when a single engine failed, the aircraft only showed a very slight yaw, and the trainees assisting him didn't even notice that one engine had shut down.

When Xu Qing was training with him at the time, he saw that Xu Xian was performing exceptionally well, so he shut down one engine on the third leg and had Xu Xian try to land with a single engine.

One can imagine what it would feel like for a trainee who had just participated in this training session to fly a real single-shot. However, Xu Xian didn't feel any fear or pressure at the time; he simply completed the single-shot landing with ease. He even felt that there was no difference between single-shot and double-shot.

Looking at Xu Xian's somewhat relaxed profile, Han Qi frowned: "You really are a student, you're not lying to me, are you?"