Chapter 16 A Different Checklist
Erhai Airport is located in the northwest of Jianchuan City, with Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake as its back, and it is really a place with excellent feng shui. But this feng shui is too strong, and the upwelling of earth energy is sometimes not a good thing.
In the first month of spring, the weather cools down, the air rises, the sky and the earth are in harmony, and the grass and trees sprout. Erhai Airport enters the wind season as soon as spring comes. It may not be obvious in the weather report, but the turbulence is so strong that even experienced and senior captains are afraid to fly.
Erhai City has extremely rich tourism resources, but ground transportation is extremely scarce, and the only reliable air transportation is avoided by airlines that want to open routes due to severe weather conditions.
Erhai Airport was originally a military airport, but its military use gradually faded. The local government also wanted to develop civil aviation, but after interviewing several airlines in the province, none of them were willing to go.
If it was not for the fact that there was no suitable alternate airport for takeoff and landing, the dispatcher of Feiyu Airlines would never choose Erhai Airport. However, it is obvious that the name of Erhai Airport really has a deterrent effect. Even if the captain of Feiyu Flight 6321 had no confidence in landing with a single engine, he finally chose to bite the bullet and try it instead of making an alternate landing at Erhai Airport.
The tower controller naturally had no idea of the captain's complex and tangled psychological activities, and subconsciously felt that returning to the airport for an alternate landing was the first option.
"Feiyu 6321, do you need to circle or directly turn to the downwind and join the approach?" asked the tower controller.
"We are now turning right above ML and circling. We will apply to join the approach when we are ready." The captain replied . At this moment, there is no fire warning for the No. 2 engine, the N1 is also rotating, and there is no abnormal body vibration, which meets the conditions for the engine to be started in the air. In any case, they are now running normally for the No. 1 engine, so they can still try to restart the No. 2 engine.
As expected, the tower controller agreed. Now, it was the interval between approach and departure, so the dispatching pressure was much smaller, which basically gave Feiyu 6321 free space to play.
After completing the "Engine Failure or Shutdown" checklist, I took the time to do the "After Takeoff" checklist. At this time, the aircraft has been hovering over the ML point, and I can try to start the No. 2 engine in the air.
When the co-pilot was looking through the relevant checklist, he suddenly noticed that the oil level indicator for the No. 2 engine on the lower DU was zero. He immediately looked at the captain in confusion and asked, "Brother, is the oil in the No. 2 engine leaking?"
The captain was startled, and following the direction pointed by the co-pilot, he also noticed the problem with the amount of lubricating oil, and his face changed immediately.
Like common household car engines, aircraft engines also need lubricating oil, otherwise the engine will not run. Among the various reasons that can cause engine flameout, there are many lubricating oil related contents, such as high lubricating oil temperature, low lubricating oil pressure or lubricating oil bypass. In these checklists, if the situation cannot be controlled, then without exception, the "Engine Failure or Shutdown" checklist will be conveyed.
In other words, the problem with the lubricating oil will directly cause the engine to stall. Although the No. 2 engine has been shut down, it is at least possible to restart it. If there is a problem with the lubricating oil, it means that there is no chance of restarting.
Even if an engine without lubricating oil is restarted, it will eventually stall after a short period of time.
If the oil was leaking, should he still do an air start? For a moment, the captain was in a state of hesitation. If he couldn't restart, he would have to make a single-engine crosswind landing, which was really uncertain.
The co-pilot sensed the captain's hesitation and looked confused. He turned to the page on "Engine Air Start" on the checklist but didn't know whether to read on.
The captain wiped his face and was about to ask the co-pilot not to do the "Engine Air Start" checklist, but to do the "Single Engine Landing" checklist directly.
At this time, Xu Cang's voice sounded behind the two of them again: "When the N2 speed is less than 8%, it is normal for the lubricating oil volume to be displayed as zero. Don't you know this?"
The captain and the co-pilot turned to look at Xu Cang at the same time, especially the captain who suddenly asked: "How do you know?"
Seeing that the captain and the co-pilot were looking at him, Xu Cang couldn't help but frowned instinctively, as if at this moment he had returned to the feeling of being the future chief pilot of the General Administration.
"Ordinary people know to look ahead when driving. Do you think it's unnecessary when flying a plane? " Xu Cang said coldly.
The captain and the co-pilot were both shocked, and immediately realized that they had forgotten to monitor the aircraft status because of their surprise. They turned their heads back in shame.
The captain couldn't help but think of the tone and demeanor of the young man sitting behind him when he was lecturing someone. The inspector sent by the authority during the random inspection was exactly the same.
"Could it be the representative appointed by the authority of Blue Sky Airlines?" The captain muttered to himself, "But why don't I remember Blue Sky Airlines having such a young representative appointed by the authority?"
The representatives appointed by the authority are rare in any airline, and basically everyone knows them. But Xu Cang looked very unfamiliar, but in the eyes of the captain, his demeanor was much stronger than that of some of the people from the authority he knew.
Seeing that the two people present had stepped forward to say what he had said, Xu Cang's expression lightened up a little, and he said leisurely: "Boeing's checklist notes should have explained this, how come you didn't know about it?"
"Is there such a note? No!" The co-pilot went through the "Engine Air Start" checklist several times but did not find any relevant description.
"No?" Now it was Xu Cang's turn to not understand. This remark should be very common, it couldn't possibly not exist.
The co-pilot glanced at the captain, obviously hoping that the captain would make the decision. However, looking at the captain's expression, he was also confused.
The reason why the crew was in such a dilemma was to protect the engine. Sometimes the damage caused by a simple engine failure can be controlled, and the damage is not as great as imagined if the maintenance personnel can repair it.
However, if the engine is forced to start without lubrication, there will be no lubrication between the engine parts, which will cause extremely terrible damage to the engine. In serious cases, the engine may even be scrapped.
If the captain believed Xu Cang's words, but there was no basis for it in the checklist, then it meant that he would be responsible for any problems that arose later. The captain felt that he was not capable of bearing the risk of scrapping an engine.
Just when the captain thought it was better to be on the safe side, Xu Cang, who had been silent for a moment, suddenly asked, "Is the English version of QRH available? Take it out and have a look."
