Chapter 167: Supercharge! Explosion!
"9951, please maintain altitude three thousand..." Before Xu Cang and his team could report their situation to the controller, the extremely unstable altitude display of the plane on the radar was enough to make the controllers tremble with fear.
At this moment, the altitude of flight 9951N is already 3,000 meters below the corrected sea pressure of the starting altitude. In fact, before this, the radar had detected that flight 9951N had issued an emergency code, which means that the crew encountered some difficult-to-handle faults. Normally, at this time, even if the aircraft deviates from the altitude, the controller will not give a special reminder. Because experienced controllers know that the crew may be busy dealing with special situations at this time and have no time to take care of altitude maintenance, let alone communicate with the controller.
At this time, if the controller takes the initiative to contact the crew, it may easily disrupt the crew's rhythm. Therefore, as long as the situation is not particularly dangerous, the controller will generally take the initiative to wait for the crew to contact.
In standard operating procedures, the aircraft status is the most important in any situation. The flight crew is not useless. Once they maintain stable control of the aircraft, they will definitely contact the controller.
However, the aircraft was now in an awkward position. Since the departure direction to Erhai Lake was a little special, the aircraft had to make a continuous left turn after takeoff and fly over the airport before taking off.
Another reason is that Jianchuan Airport is located in an awkward location. There are mountainous areas near the airport that can pose obvious terrain threats, and they are concentrated on the departure track of 9951N. If it is another departure procedure, the controller will see that the aircraft has a malfunction and lose some altitude, but now 9951N is losing altitude. If the crew is busy dealing with the malfunction, they may ignore the terrain threat, so they must be reminded.
As a result, soon after the controller contacted the crew, there was a response from Tan Heling: "9951, flight control failure, it is difficult to maintain altitude now, requesting to fly heading 170."
This application was not instructed by Mo Shangyun, but by Tan Heling himself. Although Tan Heling's psychological quality was not good, he was a captain in the past, so he reacted after a little delay.
The terrain threats near the airport are all concentrated in the north area, so we should take the initiative to stay away from this area. Within a radius of 25 kilometers from the airport, the minimum safe altitude in the north area is 7,200 feet, while the rest of the area is only 3,100 feet, so the vertical height margin is much larger.
Now they have problems with pitch control, which is reflected in the actual performance that there are unpredictable deviations in the control of altitude. In this case, no matter what, fly yourself to a relatively flat area first to give yourself more room for control.
Apart from anything else, the controller was relieved after hearing the crew's reply. He glanced at the radar screen and confirmed that there was no impact on heading 170. He then agreed to Tan Heling's request: "9951, you can fly heading 170. If possible, please report the fault."
However, this sentence fell on deaf ears, and there was no response at all.
At the control seat, the controller looked at Director Liu beside him with a little confusion: "Director, what should I do?"
Director Liu was also very upset, but the situation was different from the 747S2 switch incident. Now that his appointment had been made, as long as there were no serious problems with the command this time, he would not be affected much.
However, no matter what, as a control commander, having an air crash record during his tenure is not a good thing.
"Don't worry about it. Try not to call us later." Director Liu then asked, "How many planes will arrive in the next half hour?"
The controller immediately switched to another computer and typed on the keyboard for a while before quickly pulling up relevant information: "Five aircraft are expected to enter the approach area within half an hour."
"Notify the regional control room and announce that the airport is under control. No new aircraft are allowed to enter the approach area within half an hour. The regional control room will make the arrangements on its own."
"What if there are special circumstances?" the controller asked, "such as an alternate landing?"
Director Liu immediately said: "Notify all airlines that this airport does not accept normal diversions, except in emergencies."
The so-called normal diversion is the one with spare space. For example, if you fly to Qianxi Airport, but Qianxi Airport is covered by thunderstorm, there are many airports that meet the diversion standards, such as Jianchuan Airport and Sichuan Airport.
In this case, as long as there is still a choice, Jianchuan Airport will not be accepted as the first alternate landing airport.
But if it is an emergency, Jianchuan is the only option, such as running out of fuel. If you go to another airport, there is a risk of running out of fuel. Then Jianchuan Airport will have to accept you, because in that case, the crew will most likely declare an emergency. Everyone is in an emergency, and we can't just focus on one side.
However, the possibility of these two emergency situations happening at the same time is still very low.
The controller nodded, and immediately planned to contact the regional control room to issue an order for route adjustment. However, just as he was about to take action, he suddenly noticed out of the corner of his eye that the altitude of flight 9951N on the radar screen had stopped its downward trend, and after maintaining its altitude for a short while, it gradually rose.
The controller's eyes lit up and he became excited: "The altitude is starting to recover. Is the plane under control?"
"Hmm? Really?" Director Liu was encouraged. He moved closer to the radar screen to check the altitude data. As expected, the aircraft began to rise slowly. He immediately became excited: "Good, good, it looks like there's no problem."
Because of the 747S2 switch incident, Director Liu has basically "seen the world" in terms of psychological training. He has even seen a "real" blind landing, so other minor faults and problems should be easy to deal with, right?
"Notify the ground and the apron to let the ground plane wait for the time being." Director Liu thought that as long as the plane was under control, it would most likely return to the airport for landing. The airspace was still relatively empty, so it wouldn't take long to make a circle and land.
When I thought that Xu Cang was still on the plane, although I felt in my heart that this kid was really unlucky, the skills in his hands could still be trusted. As long as it was not a particularly serious problem, there should be no problem.
Director Liu started to make room for the returning plane, but before the order was passed down, he heard the controller exclaim, and he was immediately attracted to it: "What's wrong?"
In this situation, although Director Liu felt a little relieved, a string in his mind was still tense. He would react as soon as he heard some unusual noises from his controllers.
"The plane has broken through 3,000 again." The controller pointed at the radar screen and asked, "Is there another problem with the plane?"
"What?" Director Liu, whose joy had not lasted for half a minute, looked at the radar screen again. Sure enough, just as his controller said, the flight altitude of flight 9951N had exceeded three thousand meters, nine thousand eight hundred feet.
Director Liu was stunned for a moment, and he watched the height continue to increase, and it seemed that the rate was still increasing.
"No, what do they want to do?" The abnormal descent of the plane just now would create a terrain threat. Now that the plane has exceeded the predetermined altitude, there will be no more terrain problems. However, if it continues to climb without restriction, it will break through the upper limit of the approach control area.
You know, Jianchuan is originally a waypoint. If it goes up further, a very serious problem will arise, that is, it will touch the bottom altitude of the route.
The controller saw that Flight 9951N was climbing faster and faster, and sweat was oozing from his forehead.
"director!"
Director Liu slapped his forehead and pointed at his assistant: "Urgently notify the Jianchuan Regional Control Room to close the W134, X12, and W334 routes passing through Jianchuan JAC. At the same time, inform that there is an uncontrolled aircraft in this field that is rapidly ascending and has now exceeded the standard air pressure of 1,200 meters."
JAC is the three-letter code of the VOR station at Jianchuan Airport, and it is also a waypoint where three busy routes intersect. Therefore, once flight 9951N rises to the bottom altitude of the route, the impact will be unprecedented if it takes a long time.
Now Director Liu’s only hope is that Xu Cang can quickly control the plane and lift the order to close the route as soon as possible.
"Xu Cang, what on earth happened?"
At this moment in the cockpit, Mo Shangyun and Tan Heling were trying hard to push the steering wheel forward, but the steering wheel seemed to be rooted and did not move at all.
Because Mo Shangyun had previously made a relatively obvious movement of the stick in order to bring the aircraft back to its original altitude, the pitch of the control wheel was frozen in a nose-up position.
Even in such a huge pitch state, coupled with the powerful engine thrust, the plane was sprinting upwards uncontrollably . Xu Cang was looking at the altitude gauge at the back. At this time, the plane's climb rate remained at 2,000 feet per minute, and there was a trend of continued increase.
Almost in the blink of an eye, the plane's altitude had exceeded 1,200 meters, and even Xu Cang didn't know where the peak of the altitude was.
While Tan Heling was pushing the stick hard, he was also pushing the main electric trim switch on the control wheel forward in an attempt to use pitch trim to control the aircraft's nose-up jam.
However, Tan Heling pushed the trim wheel forward several times, but there was no response at all. Tan Heling was already furious because he kept pushing the stick to no avail, and now even the main electric pitch trim didn't work. He was immediately furious and cursed: "What a shitty plane, the electric trim doesn't work?"
Tan Heling's shout immediately alarmed Xu Cang and Mo Shangyun. As Xu Cang and Mo Shangyun were somewhat afraid of the 1566 aircraft, their stress reaction was a bit serious, their thinking was a bit confused, and they even forgot to use the pitch trim to control the aircraft.
"Instructor, do you want to use manual trim?" Tan Heling really couldn't push it anymore, and his mind was thinking about how to use the pitch trim.
Even if the main electric trim fails, it can still be trimmed manually. There is a trim wheel on each seat, and there is a spring-connected handle inside the wheel. After pulling it out, you can manually control the trim wheel.
Manual trim has a very high priority, even if the electric trim cannot be used, manual trim can still be used. However, the efficiency of manual trim is extremely low. The trimming stroke generated by the main electric trim in one second may require more than ten turns of manual trim, which is still a physical job and will be very tiring.
Moreover, in extreme cases, as the aircraft speed increases, the aerodynamic load on the horizontal stabilizer will also increase (refer to 737MAX), and it is very likely that the trim wheel cannot be turned manually.
Just as Tan Heling used his left hand to pull out the trim wheel handle, Xu Cang said from behind: "Don't turn it, it won't turn."
"We have to try it. Electric balancing is useless and we have to do it manually." said Tan Heling.
Xu Cang was speechless: "The steering wheel is stuck in the rearward pull rod position, how can the main electric trim be turned forward? Try it now."
Tan Heling was also the captain. He had not thought of it in his haste, but he reacted after being reminded by Xu Cang. In the 737's trim system, the electric trim cannot have the opposite effect to the control of the steering wheel.
For example, if the steering wheel is moved backward, the main electric trim system will suppress the input signal of forward trim, because the control effects produced by the two are opposite.
However, this will not affect manual trim, that is, no matter whether the steering wheel is forward or backward, if it is manual trim, you can do it however you want. This is the priority of manual trim.
However, at this moment the control wheel of the plane was stuck in the rearward position, so it was impossible for Tan Heling to use the electric trim to move the plane forward. Therefore, it was necessary to switch the trim switch to the override position so that the main electric trim system would not suppress the trim input signal of the opposite stroke.
Before using the main electric trim, Tan Heling turned his head to look at the corner of the central control console and found that the cover of the trim switch had been opened and the switch was turned to the override position. It was obvious that this was done by Xu Cang just now.
"This..." Tan Heling's face turned red. It was really embarrassing for a captain like him to forget such a simple thing. Fortunately, Tan Heling was thick-skinned enough. He just pretended nothing happened, turned around and said nothing, and silently began to trim forward.
Sure enough, after putting the ignition switch in the override position, the main electric trim began to take effect.
Tan Heling was also not polite. He just pressed the main electric trim switch forward, and the trim wheel turned forward rapidly without stopping for a moment.
The trim is mainly used by the pilot to eliminate the force of the stick, so the travel it produces is not as exaggerated as that of manual control. However, if it is pushed to the bottom, the effect is still quite obvious.
At first, the aircraft's climb rate was still over two thousand feet per minute, but under the effect of trim, it gradually decreased to about one thousand feet per minute, which was a relatively stable climb rate.
"Should I use manual trim to push it forward a little further?" After pushing the electric trim to the limit, Tan Heling still wanted to push it forward a little further using manual trim. The travel range of manual trim is larger than that of electric trim.
Xu Cang waved his hand and said, "Don't fight. You are going too fast now. You can't hit me. Save your strength."
Tan Heling listened to Xu Cang's words, and after trying to push the club several times without success, he asked Instructor Mo Shangyun, "Instructor, the height breakthrough is too much, should we reduce the throttle?"
"No!" As a result, before Mo Shangyun could answer, Xu Cang, who was sitting in the back, directly rejected the proposal: "The pitch attitude is too large, the throttle cannot be reduced, otherwise the speed will not be maintained."
After saying that, Xu Cang took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. After waiting for about five seconds, Xu Cang fumbled out a wireless telephone receiver from the small box at hand, inserted it into the hole of the handheld microphone, and then adjusted it to the VHF transmitter. He said to the microphone in a calm tone: "9951N, the aircraft is stuck in pitch and the altitude cannot be controlled. Please evacuate the aircraft on the upper route immediately."
"Xu Cang, how is the plane now? Can it be handled?" On the other end of the radio, Director Liu quickly recognized Xu Cang's voice and immediately grabbed the microphone to ask.
"It's okay, we can handle it."
After saying this, Xu Cang's originally restless heart gradually calmed down. It was not that Xu Cang was trying to be brave, but compared with the previous situations, the pitch jam was still within an acceptable range.
After all, during pilot refresher training, they will still practice control jams from time to time, but no one will train for forced landings on water, and no one will train for completely "blind" landings.
"Okay!" Director Liu just said one word: "I have contacted the regional control room to remove the aircraft from your plane."
"Thank you!" Xu Cang said, and put the wireless telephone receiver in a small box on the side.
He swallowed and finally calmed his heart to a normal level. He couldn't panic at this moment. What he needed most was to stay calm.
"Don't use force, let's do the checklist again from the beginning now." Xu Cang said calmly.
Since there was an instructor, a captain, and Xu Cang in the cockpit, they simply ignored the checklist when something went wrong. It wasn't that they didn't know the checklist for jammed or restricted flight controls, but they instinctively went beyond the checklist, but Xu Cang wanted to follow the checklist for the last time.
"Okay!" Mo Shangyun slowly relaxed the muscles of his arms: "Come on, do it!"
Xu Cang did not look through the checklist. Whether it was the memory items or the non-memory items, they were all in his mind. Without pausing, Xu Cang said directly: "Autopilot...disconnect!"
Although the autopilot had been disconnected, Mo Shangyun still pressed the autopilot disconnect button on the steering wheel again: "Autopilot is disconnected!"
"Autothrottle disconnect!"
Similarly, Mo Shangyun pressed the auto-throttle disconnect button on the top of the thrust handle and confirmed: "The auto-throttle is disconnected."
"Thrust symmetry confirmed!"
Mo Shangyun glanced at the N1 speed of the two engines and adjusted it slightly to make them highly consistent.
"Okay, next step!"
Xu Cang glanced at the plane's altimeter and said softly, "Forcefully operate the stuck or restricted system. Use maximum force, including both pilots exerting force at the same time when necessary. Two pilots using maximum control force will not cause the cable or ineffective system to malfunction."
This sentence is the original words in the flight control jam or restricted checklist, and its meaning is to remove the linkage between the left and right control wheels.
The two control wheels of Boeing aircraft are connected together through a linkage device, that is, if the control value is input to one of the control wheels, it will be reflected in the other control wheel.
This is different from the Airbus side stick input, which can be inconsistent. The Airbus side stick input is the superposition of the left and right inputs, that is, if the left seat pushes the stick forward and the right seat pushes the stick back with the same stroke without the authority to close a side stick, the reaction on the aircraft control system is to cancel each other out, without any additional control input.
This is fundamentally different from Boeing's control system.
Boeing's linkage brings some benefits, but it also creates a problem. If only one of the control wheels is stuck, the linkage will cause both control wheels to stick, so the linkage between the two must be removed.
There is no button or switch in the cockpit to disengage the control wheel linkage, so the method Boeing recommends is... violent disengagement!
That's right, brute force was used to disengage the linkage of the two steering wheels, making them independent of each other.
This is different from what happened just now when both of them pushed the steering wheel forward. The goal now is to disengage the linkage device, so there must be some changes in the way the force is applied.
Mo Shangyun withdrew his right hand from the throttle lever and gripped the steering wheel. At the same time, his left hand released the steering wheel and opened and closed his five fingers several times, as if he was relaxing his muscles.
"I'm really getting old!" Mo Shangyun sighed. Just now, Mo Shangyun pushed the club forward with more force, and perhaps because he pushed too hard, his left hand felt a little sore.
If this had happened to Mo Shangyun ten years ago, it would have been unbelievable. However, even heroes cannot withstand the erosion of time. Teacher Mo Shangyun is almost at retirement age, and his physical fitness is really not up to par.
After relaxing his wrist for about five or six seconds, Mo Shangyun glanced at Tan Heling and said, "I'll lead from behind and you push forward. Is that ok?"
If you want to disengage the linkage, it is best to use the opposite force. In Boeing's design, no matter how much force the crew uses, violently disengaging the linkage of the control wheel will not harm the flight control system, so both Mo Shangyun and Tan Heling can use their maximum strength without worrying about damaging the aircraft.
"No problem." Tan Heling replied immediately.
Although Xu Cang heard Tan Heling's quick agreement, his breathing was a little unstable as he spoke. It was obvious that he had put all his strength into the putter just now, and he seemed to be a little exhausted.
As expected, the pilots sat for a long time, and although they did not have any serious illnesses, they were not strong at all.
"Xu Cang, let's try to disengage the linkage device on the control wheel. Please pay attention to the status of the aircraft and remind me if there is any deviation."
Under normal circumstances, with Mo Shangyun's ability, he could keep an eye on all directions, but he would have to use all his strength in a moment, and he might not be able to allocate his energy, so he had to let Xu Cang keep an eye on him.
Xu Cang nodded immediately: "I know!"
"Okay, let's get started!" Before the action, Mo Shangyun also gave a signal to the cabin. This signal was the same as the signal of strong turbulence, in order to make the people in the cabin sit tight, so as to avoid the steering wheel coming off and causing the aircraft's state to change too dramatically due to excessive force, thus causing injuries to the cabin personnel.
After giving the signal, Mo Shangyun and Tan Heling both held the plate with both hands.
"One, two, three, hard!"
Following Mo Shangyun's order, the two men exerted their strength at the same time, one pushing forward and the other pulling back. From Xu Cang's perspective, Tan Heling's face turned red because of the excessive force, and a very obvious blue vein appeared on Mo Shangyun's temple, obviously he had also used up all his strength.
Although Boeing aircraft are known as air gyms, the amount of exercise is really amazing.
“Is this thing stuck on both sides, or is the linkage fixed too tightly? I really…” Tan Heling’s face turned from red at first to gradually pale. He felt that if this continued, he would definitely collapse.
At first, Xu Cang was a little worried about Tan Heling's condition, but when he heard Tan Heling shouting and greeting all the eighteen generations of Boeing's ancestors, he was slightly relieved. It seemed that Tan Heling was still in good spirits.
In comparison, the older Mo Shangyun seemed to be unable to bear it. Fine beads of sweat floated on Mo Shangyun's forehead, and he looked like he was at the end of his strength.
"Teacher, come down, I will take over from you." Xu Cang patted Mo Shangyun on the shoulder. If he continued to force it, Mo Shangyun would definitely get into trouble. It would be better to leave this kind of physical work to a young man like him.
Mo Shangyun tried for a few seconds, but the steering wheel was still as solid as a rock. This time, Mo Shangyun finally gave up and slowly loosened his hands. Xu Cang clearly saw that Mo Shangyun's hands were beginning to tremble.
"I'm really old!" Mo Shangyun stopped trying to be stubborn. He unbuckled his seat belt and quickly made room for Xu Cang.
As the plane's altitude increased, the air became thinner, and the aerodynamic performance of the plane also deteriorated. As a result, the original climb rate of more than 1,000 feet began to slowly decrease. When Xu Cang and Mo Shangyun changed seats in the air, the climb rate was only more than 800, which was considered a relatively mild climb rate.
However, this was not enough news to make Xu Cang happy. Because the attitude of the aircraft was stuck, when the climb rate returned to zero and the thrust reached full thrust, the speed of the aircraft would be consumed.
Of course, compared to the uncontrollable rising rate of two or three thousand at the beginning, the current situation is still much better.
During the time when they were changing seats in the air, Tan Heling was always paying attention to the status of the plane, and there were no more problems. When Xu Cang sat in the left seat, fastened his seat belt, held the plate with both hands, and took a deep breath: "Come again!"
After saying that, the two of them exerted force again at the same time. This time, Xu Cang used all his strength. He felt that his head was about to explode. After about ten seconds of high-intensity force, Xu Cang's left arm began to ache first.
At this point, Xu Cang secretly regretted why he didn't exercise more often. Now that he really needed to do aerial fitness, he couldn't rely on it.
At this moment, Xu Cang finally understood why Tan Heling had just yelled. Now Xu Cang was also cursing at the designer of the Boeing aircraft in his heart.
Just as Xu Cang was thinking about whether to give up and find another way, suddenly, the steering wheel, which had been motionless, seemed to loosen slightly, and Xu Cang could even hear a slight clicking sound.
The sound was so clear that the three people in the cockpit looked at each other in surprise.
"it works!"
Tan Heling almost wanted to shout out loud. He had used all his strength, and if it was useless, he wanted to smash the plane. However, there were signs of loosening now, and it was obvious that victory was just around the corner.
The dawn of hope had appeared. Xu Cang, who was about to give up, suddenly became more energetic and tried harder. With a more obvious cracking sound, the steering wheel on Xu Cang's side became obviously loose. Xu Cang was caught off guard and pulled the plane back again.
"It's done!" Xu Cang moved the steering wheel a little. Actually, it was done, but not completely, because the range of the steering wheel's movement was obviously much smaller than normal, and it could only move forward and backward within a certain limited range. However, compared to the previous completely stuck state, it was much better.
Xu Cang pushed the restricted steering wheel forward, and finally tried to push it to the front, while at the same time pulling back the accelerator to avoid increasing the speed.
Although the forward travel of the control wheel is not large, given that a large amount of pitch trim has been moved forward before, the aircraft's climb rate has been reduced to almost zero under operation, and it is almost in a level state.
"Okay, that's almost manipulable."
For someone with Xu Cang's skills, this situation is already under control. Even if it were an ordinary pilot, there is a high probability that he would be able to land the plane.
As long as you increase the throttle a little more, the plane will start to slowly descend.
Mo Shangyun, who was sitting in the back, finally relaxed completely. He had just seen Xu Cang operate the restricted steering wheel, and there was indeed no problem.
"Let's return." Mo Shangyun wiped the sweat from his forehead. The operation just now really made him a little exhausted. He felt like his body was about to collapse. He just wanted to land quickly and then go back to lie down.
At this moment, Tan Heling, who had also relaxed, clicked his tongue, crossed his arms, put his right hand close to the vent, and asked Xu Cang, "Do you feel a little cold?"
Xu Cang was startled. Now that he heard that, he really felt something. He had just exerted himself and was sweating all over. After he came to his senses, he did feel a chill.
"Raise the temperature a bit, I'll contact control." Now that they have reached a certain altitude, although they have decided to return, they cannot fly around randomly and need to ask control for instructions on the return route.
When Tan Heling noticed that Xu Cang had taken over the call, he wanted to turn up the temperature in the cockpit. But when he looked up, he suddenly noticed the cockpit altimeter and rate of climb indicator on the pressurization panel.
At this moment, the aircraft's altitude has been leveled. Logically, the cabin altitude rate indicator should be below 500 even in climb mode. However, the instrument now shows that the cabin altitude is rising at a speed of about 1,000 feet.
"Xu Cang, is there some problem with the altitude of this cabin?" Tan Heling interrupted Xu Cang who wanted to contact the controller and motioned him to take a look at the pressurization panel.
Not only Xu Cang, but even Mo Shangyun behind him came closer and looked at the boost panel.
"Is it a slow release of pressure?" Mo Shangyun said first.
According to the pressurization work plan of the 737, this ascent rate is indeed abnormal. Moreover, comparing with the pressurization altimeter, the cabin altitude corresponding to the aircraft's altitude at this moment should be around 5,000 feet, but the actual cabin altitude has exceeded 8,000 feet, which is obviously problematic.
"Did it happen because of the tail strike just now?" Although Xu Cang was confused, he acted decisively: "Who cares? Anyway, there is a problem with the pressurization. Let's apply for a rapid descent first. Maybe we can get below 10,000 feet before the decompression."
Mo Shangyun nodded: "Okay, apply for a quick descent first."
There is a difference between rapid descent and emergency descent, and the current situation has not yet reached the level of an emergency descent.
However, just when Xu Cang's finger was on the radio transmission button, the index of the cabin altitude rise and fall rate meter suddenly increased. Tan Heling, who had been paying attention, was startled. He quickly went through the checklist, turned the pressurization mode selector to the manual position, and then moved the outflow valve to the fully closed position to prevent the cabin altitude from rising again.
Originally this was a pretty good emergency measure, but when Xu Cang noticed Tan Heling's actions, his face suddenly changed and he shouted, "Don't move!"
But the moment Xu Cang shouted, the outflow valve had been completely closed by manual control. In an instant, the value of the pressure differential indicator began to rise rapidly. Before Tan Heling could react, a huge explosion sounded throughout the entire plane, and the tail of the plane exploded directly in the air!