Chapter 446? Mail Line 8 Makes an Emergency Landing in Central South China

Chapter 446 Mail Line 8 made an emergency landing in Central South China

The day before the takeoff and landing test, the Air Force and the Military Air Force sent a research team to the Zhongnan Station and brought a rating plan.

To put it simply, Li Zhan was also ordered to conduct graded flights at the base. It was said that the aviation department was preparing to establish a base grade system and a new assessment standard. Air force stations have the same level as civil aviation airports. For example, the Beiku Combat Training Base was a regimental-level station before it was changed to a base. It can take off large military aircraft and is backward compatible. This grading system is similar to that of civil aviation airports, and is evaluated based on runways and other bases.

The new rating system includes new factors such as support capabilities, ease of use, geographical location, etc. It comprehensively considers the grade of a station and provides sufficient basis for future adjustments.

The new rating system had just entered the actual testing stage when the Second Division wanted to conduct a take-off and landing test at the Zhongnan Field Station. So they simply merged into one and put the test rating pilot in the Second Division, with Li Zhan conducting the test flights.

As a result, the scheduled flight date had to be postponed, and Li Zhan needed to learn and understand the detailed requirements and rules of the new rating system. This time we not only need to find a suitable take-off and landing route, but also repeatedly explore more details, such as a clearer upward and downward compatibility range.

In the new rating system, some stations that specialize in deploying fighter jets may be upgraded due to their geographical location, while some large stations with less prominent military geographical locations may be downgraded due to this.

The new rating system is related to the vital interests of the officers and soldiers. The transformation of the Beikku Field Station into the Beikku Combat Training Base is not only the result of baseization, but also the result of the upgrading of the station level. Most of the officers and soldiers of the station have benefited from this. Some cadres who had difficulty in promotion and had no hope of promotion were promoted on the spot amid such changes.

What interests Li Zhan most is that the level of base stations is related to various subsidy standards. For example, if a base station is labeled as high-risk in the rating, the relevant subsidies will increase accordingly.

All matters that involve the vital interests of officers and soldiers must be handled with great caution. After repeated discussions, studies and pilots, a large amount of data must be collected, analyzed and studied, and then implemented cautiously.

The weather is not good and the Shonan region has received its first snowfall.

Li Zhan woke up early in the morning and stood in the corridor, looking across the runway at the mountains shrouded in thick fog in the distance, and couldn't help but sigh. He didn't need to read the weather report to know it wasn't good weather for flying.

During breakfast, Zhang Wei came over with the report in his hand. After sitting down, he looked disappointed and breathed a sigh of relief and said, "We can't fly because the Guangbei Meteorological Observatory didn't approve it."

Li Zhan was not surprised and said, "The visibility is less than 200 meters. Plain airports can still be tried, but those in mountainous areas can be forgotten."

"Hey, are you afraid sometimes?" Zhang Wei said.

Li Zhan finished the last bit of porridge, looked at Zhang Wei and said, "Why are you still relieved? Are you scared?"

"Me? No, no, how could I be afraid?" Zhang Wei forced a smile.

Li Zhan said in a leisurely manner, "I'll talk to the chief of staff later, and then talk to the research team. As for the test flight, the current weather is actually quite suitable when it comes to flying to the limit."

Zhang Wei almost stood up and said angrily, "What's wrong with you? Is it just a visibility of 500 meters? Look, look at the wind, you are going to take off with the wind, don't say whether the runway is enough or not, even if it is enough to enter What should I do if the mountains hit the mountain? There are also low air currents in the mountainous areas during bad weather. The mountainous areas in the south are completely different from those in the north and south of the west. You can still trace the low air currents in the mountainous areas in the south. There are no rules for the low air currents in the mountainous areas in the south. You can understand these I know."

After staring at Zhang Wei seriously for a while, Li Zhan stood up and carried the basin away. After delivering it to the recycling center, he strode towards the waiting commuter bus.

Zhang Wei was stunned. After being stunned for a while, he quickly chased him out and jumped into the car. He explained, "Old Li, you misunderstood. I'm not afraid of death. How could I be afraid of death? I mean, I can't take off in impossible weather." But being irresponsible to oneself is also irresponsible to the property of the Air Force. If a life is lost and a small fighter plane is lost, it will be a big deal."

Li Zhan couldn't hold back anymore, laughed out loud, and said, "Look how scared you are. Who is not afraid of death? I am afraid of death too. I will definitely not act recklessly. Just keep it in your stomach."

Zhang Wei secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He was really afraid that Li Zhan would ask for a normal flight. Tang Guozheng might really agree, because he knew very well that Tang Guozheng was also an adventurist and agreed with many of Li Zhan's views, especially Li Zhan's "evil" The "environmental thumping force" theory.

What is the concept of two hundred meters visibility?

The driver of the commuter car tensed up every nerve and stared at the road ahead. All the muscles in his body were prepared. He silently recited "press the brakes as soon as possible if necessary" ten thousand times in his heart. The right driver who stepped on the accelerator pedal I didn't even dare to use my feet really hard.

Ice, snow, fog.

As Zhang Wei said, the situation in the south is different from that in the north and west. The snow in the south also has a southern character, with a reserved and gentle style on the surface. Compared with the blizzards in the west and the heavy snow in the north, the snow in the south has no intention of grabbing the headlines. They will always complete themselves silently without people noticing. mission, but what is left behind is very likely to be a disaster far more serious than the heavy snow in the north.

When he arrived at the tower, Li Zhanzai carefully checked the latest weather report and finally became convinced that he would not be able to fly this morning, and the forecast from the Guibei Meteorological Observatory clearly stated that flying would not be allowed in the next forty-eight hours.

This made Li Zhan feel like his punch was empty. He had made full preparations and planned to use his skills to put up the flag of the Beiku Eagle Falcon at the boundary of the Second Division.

Zhang Wei said regretfully, "There's nothing I can do. Just make more preparations. I'll be your navigator and I have to make more preparations. It's just right, there are still two days left."

Suddenly there was a crashing sound.

Everyone looked up and saw rain hitting the windshield. Sleet, this strange weather phenomenon is probably unique to the south. When precipitation from high-altitude cumulonimbus clouds encounters sub-zero temperatures, it quickly solidifies and turns into snow, forming the phenomenon of snow. Sleet is a phenomenon where future rain that has solidified into snow and snow that has already solidified are mixed together and fall together.

Usually sleet occurs at the transition point from rain to snow, from rain to snow, or from snow to rain.

The report mentioned that snow began to fall at around 3 a.m., and as the temperature rises, the snowfall will turn into rain.

So it can be concluded that snowfall will quickly turn to rain.

Li Zhan hates rain more than snow because he thinks it will make takeoff, landing and flying more difficult. And it is very likely that there will be heavy fog after the rain. Such diverse weather changes in one day are characteristic of the southern mountainous climate and are quite unpredictable.

Seeing that the rain was getting heavier and heavier, replacing the flying snowflakes in an instant, Zhang Wei shrugged and said, "We can't fly today. There may be heavy fog after the rain stops.

The visibility is getting lower.

Li Zhan put down the weather report in disappointment and said, "God is not kind to me. Let's go and discuss the flight plan."

Zhang Wei shook his head helplessly, "You are really a flying madman. We have discussed the flight plan over and over again more than a hundred times."

The two were talking and preparing to leave the tower.

Suddenly the commander received a call, Li Zhan heard a few words, and the random tower suddenly became nervously busy.

"A civil aviation cargo plane is in danger of red and will be diverted to this site. Quick, clear the runway and prepare for rescue!" the commander quickly issued an order.

Li Zhan refused to leave at this time and came back to understand the situation.

A Yun-8 cargo plane of China Postal Airlines performs a cargo mission from Central Plains to Zhangjie Tourism Airport in Central and South China. The flight code is 8Y1771. It is a fixed cargo flight between the two places. It has a round trip every day and transports air mail. The aircraft being flown was a Y-8F-400 medium-sized transport aircraft that joined the Postal Service fleet ten years ago, with the civil aviation number B-25277. At the time, it was a relatively advanced medium-sized transport aircraft using turboprop engines in China. Now it seems old and backward.

Set the time back to twenty minutes ago.

The crew discovered that the power of the No. 1 engine was declining, and the problem was not resolved after emergency treatment. The Y-8 is equipped with four turboprop-6 engines. It conducted a test flight that year, which proved that after losing the thrust of one engine, it can still take off and land normally by relying on the remaining three engines.

So the crew wasn't overly concerned.

The Y-8F-400 has an improved cockpit, so the crew is reduced to three people, namely the captain, co-pilot, and flight engineer. This is more suitable for commercial purposes. After all, companies need to control costs. The crew composition of cargo flight 8Y1771 deserves attention. The captain is the first generation of pilots trained by the civil aviation system based on its own training system. He has more than 5,000 hours of flight time. The flight time of the Y-8 model has reached more than 2,000 hours. The co-pilot is only 27 years old. , the Y-8’s flight hours are only more than one hundred hours.

However, this combination does not appear to be too abrupt. The difficulty of short- and medium-distance cargo flights is not high, and the requirements for the crew are not as high as those of passenger flights. Some are like the level requirements for motor vehicle drivers. For example, driving a large passenger car requires the highest level A1 driver's license, while driving a large truck only requires a B2 license.

When the No. 1 engine experienced power fading, the captain decisively took over control. Randomly, five seconds after he took over control of the aircraft, the No. 1 engine stalled completely.

At this time, the flight was passing through a storm area, with lightning and thunder at high altitudes and rain and snow at low altitudes. 8Y1771 was flying at mid-altitude at an altitude of 6,200 meters. This is the route altitude assigned by air traffic control to short-distance propeller aircraft. It happened to be that the weather was relatively good. in the gap airspace.

The crew of flight 8Y1771 often encounters similar weather, especially in summer, winter and seasons. The captain has been flying this route all year round and is well prepared for the changeable weather in mountainous areas, and has rich experience in dealing with severe weather.

But the captain never experienced an engine blackout, even though it was only one of four engines.

If that's the case, then it won't be a big problem. It's only a 20-minute flight from the tourist airport, a distance of more than 300 kilometers. Relying on the remaining three engines, it is completely possible to make a perfect three-engine landing on the established runway of the tourist airport, and maybe get a reward from the company for this.

However, the stalling of the No. 1 engine seemed to be just the beginning of a series of problems.

A minute later, the captain discovered that the thrust of the No. 2 engine had also declined, and in just five seconds it completely lost thrust and stalled.

In other words, there are only two engines left in 8Y1771.

The flight carried 17 tons of cargo, including precision electronic devices, air mail, luxury goods, electronic equipment, etc. They are all important and high value-added commodities, worth more than 2 million yuan. As far as the captain is concerned, he doesn't care which bastard's luxury goods are loaded on the plane. He only cares about the weight of the cargo.

The maximum commercial load of the aircraft is 15 tons, which means that 8Y1771 carries 2 tons of more cargo, but this does not violate the regulations because this route allows the -8F-400 to carry up to 20 tons of cargo. The problem is that assuming the four engines are working properly, the aircraft can still successfully fly to the destination and land safely with three engines.

But after losing two engine thrusts, everything became impossible.

On the outside of the left wing is engine number one, and on the inside is engine number three. On the inside of the right wing is engine number two, and on the outside is engine number four.

The captain felt fortunate that what was lost was the thrust of the No. 1 and No. 2 engines, so that there was still one engine working normally on the left and right wings, ensuring a balanced thrust. If two engines on the same side are lost, things may be very troublesome.

While increasing the thrust of the No. 3 and No. 4 engines, the captain pulled the aircraft, which had lost some altitude due to the reduced thrust, back onto the route assigned by air traffic control. After a short discussion, they decided to restart engines No. 1 and 2.

Starting the engine using the APU (auxiliary power unit) takes time, approximately sixty seconds.

The reduction in thrust caused the aircraft to fly at a lower altitude. The two engines that were still working normally were operating at full load. However, it was obviously difficult to support the aircraft with a load infinitely approaching the maximum load capacity to fly at the original altitude.

Fortunately, they have a sea height of more than 6,000 meters, and they have just entered the mountain at this time, and the ground height is at least 3,000 meters.

After reporting the situation to control, the airspace ahead of them was cleared, so there was no need to worry about a mid-air collision.

The crew waited with bated breath for the green light of the APU to turn on. When it finally turned on, the captain pressed his thumb on the start button of the No. 1 engine and said, "Start the No. 1 engine!"

After pressing it, the tachometer of engine No. 1 started to move, which was no different from the normal startup. Then another sixty seconds passed and the crew successfully started the No. 2 engine.

"The two engines successfully drove in the air. We probably set a company record." The captain finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The co-pilot's face turned pale with nervousness, but at least some color appeared at this moment, and he said, "The two engines stopping in the air must have set a company record."

The flight engineer wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Today's weather is worse than the forecast."

"Yeah, I didn't expect the weather here to be so bad." The captain looked left and right at the dim sky outside, the visibility was very poor.

The captain immediately reported to the Central South Air Traffic Control Center, "Central South Air Traffic Control, I have rectified the fault. The No. 1 and 2 engines have been successfully restarted. Please continue to the tourist airport, 8Y1771."

The controller of Zhongnan Air Traffic Control was relieved of his beating heart and said with a smile, "8Y1771, continue to the tourist airport for permission, contact Zhongnan Approach, goodbye."

"Understood, contact Zhongnan Approach, goodbye. 8Y1771."

Just five seconds after the captain ended his conversation with the air traffic controller, the fire warning lights of engines No. 1 and 2 suddenly came on!

PS: I will make up for the updates from the past two days starting tomorrow.