"Active decompression?" Tan Heling looked at Xu Cang in disbelief. "You mean after the tail strike, manual decompression? What if the plane exceeds 10,000 feet?"
"Then follow the decompression procedure." Xu Cang answered Tan Heling's questions while paying attention to the status of the aircraft.
Although the situation was quite dangerous this time, it was under control so far. The limited pitch control caused some difficulties, but for Xu Cang, this problem was still acceptable.
The truly fatal problem is the damage to the fuselage at the tail. Fortunately, there is no ductility problem at present. What Xu Cang is more concerned about is whether the damage to the tail will further lead to problems with pitch control.
The most terrifying thing now is that the elevator has completely failed. After all, according to the control report, some of it has been detached. If more parts separate, the consequences will be unimaginable.
In turning operations, some additional means can be used, such as ailerons and rudders. However, the rudder is mainly used for yaw operations, and in turning, the rudder only plays an auxiliary role.
However, if there is a problem with the ailerons, the rudder can still turn the aircraft to some extent, but its efficiency is much lower than that of the ailerons.
However, it is difficult to have a backup for pitch operations, that is, if the elevator fails, the pilot cannot assist in pitch control by moving other control surfaces. The only feasible solution is to increase or decrease thrust.
It is difficult to achieve precise control of pitch by simply increasing or decreasing thrust, and this is the same even if Xu Cang is asked to do it.
The only thing to be thankful for is that, although it looked very dangerous, nothing happened. If this situation continued, it would not be very difficult for the plane to land.
It was precisely because of such a calm mentality that Xu Cang had the energy to talk to Tan Heling about the issue of proactively relieving pressure.
"You mean that even if the plane is not decompressed, we still have to open all the outflow valves directly. Then once the plane rises above 10,000 feet, wouldn't it be ourselves who caused the decompression?" Tan Heling still couldn't understand Xu Cang's logic. Isn't this just asking for trouble?
However, Xu Cang did not waver at all: "Weighing the two evils, we should choose the lesser one. In the case of possible fuselage damage, the existence of the pressurization system will aggravate the degree of damage to the fuselage, so this danger must be eliminated."
"Even if it means artificially relieving the pressure, will you mind?" Tan Heling asked in return.
Xu Cang's eyes dropped slightly. "The Boeing 737 does not have damage detection for the fuselage structure. As long as there is a suspicion, it must be considered as having already occurred. The risk of a planned decompression is a drop in the bucket compared to the damage to the fuselage."
Tan Heling was speechless for a moment. He felt that what Xu Cang said made some sense. However, there was also a problem that could not be avoided.
"But there is no related active decompression procedure in the tail strike procedure. You are violating the standard procedure."
Xu Cang's eyes sparkled with determination: "So Boeing's operating manual needs to be revised."
Tan Heling and Mo Shangyun were both shocked. Xu Cang's words clearly pointed out that Boeing's standard operating procedures were flawed. In this era, whether it was from the authorities, airlines, or even the lowest-level pilots, although they sneered at Boeing's business practices, they never denied its professionalism and regarded its operating procedures as the standard. How could anyone say that Boeing's manuals should be changed like Xu Cang did?
"Xu Cang, are you serious?" Tan Heling still couldn't believe that Xu Cang dared to say that. Not to mention that Xu Cang was only a second-level co-pilot now, even the chief pilot of the Civil Aviation Administration would not dare to say that.
However, Xu Cang did not directly answer Tan Heling's question, but said softly: "Don't worry, you will be fine. It's the program that has a problem, not you."
Tan Heling shuddered. Xu Cang clearly saw through his thoughts. He asked so persistently because he was afraid that he had just gone beyond the checklist and switched the boost mode to manual, and then completely closed the outflow valve.
From what Xu Cang said, the explosion of the plane was directly related to his manual closing of the outflow valve, which was what made Tan Heling most uneasy. But Xu Cang now said that Tan Heling had no problem.
Even though Tan Heling knew that the final result was decided by the bureau, he still felt relieved when he heard Xu Cang say that, and said, "Thank you."
"Okay, let's prepare for the approach." Xu Cang adjusted his mood and continued, "The landing this time is not difficult. The problem of limited pitch operation is still concentrated on the nose of the aircraft, so during the approach operation, try to be careful not to create a situation where the aircraft has too much energy. The rest... is not a big problem."
Today, the control wheel is limited to a short distance of forward or backward movement, but this does not mean that it is equally difficult to lower the aircraft or raise its head.
Since the stabilizer trim has been pushed forward to the bottom, the most direct way to lower the aircraft's nose is to hold up the control wheel, but this method is limited.
On the contrary, if you want to lift the aircraft up, although pulling the control wheel backward is also limited, you can assist in lifting the aircraft up by moving the stabilizer trim backward, and this method is not restricted so far.
Therefore, given the different difficulties in lowering and raising the nose of the aircraft, Xu Cang needs to do his best to avoid the possibility of a situation where a large nose dive is required, which is what Xu Cang said about the aircraft having too much energy.
When the energy is too full, the pilot has to rely on continuous push-stick to keep the aircraft's trajectory on the correct glide path, which is obviously inconsistent with the current predicament of aircraft.
"I will approach with a relatively low energy state, and there may be three red lights and one white light or four red lights when I enter the runway at a low altitude. As long as the aircraft status data deviation is not particularly large, you should not call for a go-around. Our pitch operation is limited now. If possible, try not to make a go-around."
It can be seen that Xu Cang was prepared for the upcoming approach. Generally speaking, with the reference of PAPI lights, two red and two white are naturally the most standard descent trajectory.
However, in actual flight, at low altitudes, such as when about to enter the airspace above the runway, if the two reds and two whites standard is still followed, it is very likely that the aircraft will not be able to land on the "big white block", which is the standard touchdown area.
This is because the standard glide path is indeed directly connected to the area, but the glide path of the aircraft cannot objectively be a straight line, mainly because the aircraft has a flattened curve at the end.
If the aircraft is always facing the touchdown zone, then once it is leveled, it will almost certainly pass the touchdown zone in actual effect. Therefore, in actual flight, the pilot will perform some additional operations, such as artificially lowering the aircraft when it is about to land, in order to make the aircraft's trajectory lower than the standard trajectory, so that the aircraft can land exactly on the touchdown zone when it is leveled.
Another thing is to move the timing of this action forward, that is, when entering the air above the runway, abandon the standard glide path and approach at a relatively low altitude with three reds and one white. After that, the operation will be normal and there is no need to lower the aircraft, so the touchdown point will also be standard.
Xu Cang would undoubtedly choose the latter method, because given the limited pitch control, he might not be able to lower the aircraft at the last minute. So, what he had to do was to change the landing altitude and approach at a lower altitude.
Anyway, he can accept low energy and low altitude, but he cannot accept high energy and high altitude landing.
With Xu Cang's skills, he should be able to complete the PAPI approach with three red lights and one white light. However, to avoid unexpected situations, such as four red lights due to the approach altitude being too low, Xu Cang still needed to explain to Tan Heling and Mo Shangyun in advance to prevent the two from calling for a go-around due to the approach altitude.
It's not that the plane can't take off now, it's just more troublesome. Unless it's absolutely necessary, Xu Cang doesn't want to take off. Moreover, the aerodynamic load of the high thrust and high pitch state of the go-around is too large for the aircraft, which may worsen the damage of the aircraft, which is the most fatal.
"Are you not going to care about the four red lights?" asked Tan Heling.
Xu Cang shook his head: "Don't worry! It's easy to correct if you fly low, but it's hard to correct if you fly high. If you see four white lights, then you should just go around."
Since Xu Cang said so, Tan Heling and Mo Shangyun had no objections. They could also understand Xu Cang's thoughts, and the three of them reached a consensus.
"Prepare for approach." Xu Cang ordered.
"Okay!" Tan Heling immediately prepared for the approach. The preparation was not complicated. The localizer and blind landing frequency were adjusted before takeoff, and the decision altitude was the same. Tan Heling only needed to select the autobrake. However, when the autobrake was selected to level 3, the autobrake release light was still on.
"Hmm?" Tan Heling turned the automatic brake knob back to the off position, waited for three or four seconds, and then selected the automatic brake level 3 again. After waiting for a few more seconds, the automatic brake release light came on again.
Tan Heling tried again, but the result was the same.
Xu Cang was still paying attention to the aircraft control. After Tan Heling tried to set the automatic brake several times without success, he finally noticed it and asked casually, "Is there a problem with the automatic brake?"
"It seems that it cannot be set." Tan Heling set the automatic braking again in front of Xu Cang, but the arming light still lit up stubbornly.
Xu Cang tried it himself, but the result was the same, so he just ignored it: "Forget it, it's the same if I use manual brakes."
"Oh, then we're ready." Tan Heling quickly scanned the panel from top to bottom, confirming that all the settings had been completed: "Then shall I quickly give you a brief order?"
Xu Cang was about to agree when Mo Shangyun, who was sitting behind him, spoke up: "Xu Cang, how do you feel about the strength of the pole now?"
"Rod force? No." Xu Cang raised his eyebrows and quickly realized what Mo Shangyun meant. He quickly freed his right hand and pressed the SYS button. The hydraulic information was immediately displayed on the lower DU that originally displayed the engine data.
As soon as the hydraulic page appeared, Xu Cang's eyelids jumped.
"The hydraulic pressure is decreasing?" Tan Heling, who was standing nearby, came closer and said, "It's decreasing very quickly! Instructor, is it because of the decreasing hydraulic pressure that the automatic brake cannot be pre-positioned?"
"The pressure of the B system is directly related to the automatic braking. However, this is not the biggest problem." Mo Shangyun's tone was relatively normal: "It's not that the hydraulic pressure is decreasing, it's that the hydraulic oil is leaking out."
Xu Cang cursed inwardly, and Tan Heling also reacted: "Is it the tail that is damaged and connected to the hydraulic pipeline?"
"What else?" Mo Shangyun sighed: "Damage to the fuselage will cause so many problems."
Whether it is hydraulic pipes, fuel pipes or electrical pipes, they are all distributed on the fuselage structure. As long as physical damage occurs, the damage will inevitably extend to other systems, rather than just a pressurization problem.
With the explosion that happened not long ago, any normal person would understand that the damage to the fuselage structure would be extremely serious, and the spread of the damage would not be unimaginable.
Tan Heling watched the pressure on the AB system drop rapidly, and couldn't help but worry: "Xu Cang, are you still having trouble operating it?"
The Boeing 737's rudder control uses hydraulics to eliminate excess stick force. Once the hydraulic system fails, the pilot must directly control the rudder through the mechanical structure, and the force required is very large.
Xu Cang moved the steering wheel slightly and felt that the current situation was not bad: "It's OK, let's land as soon as possible. Who knows if there will be other faults?"
In Xu Cang's opinion, the failure of the hydraulic system was not difficult to deal with. Even if all the AB systems failed, the worst that could happen was manual restoration of flight.
The difficulty of manual recovery flight has never been technical, but whether the pilot has enough strength. Yes, once entering the manual recovery state, the pilot basically directly controls the flight control surface without the help of hydraulic pressure. Under the action of aerodynamic load, the joystick force will be very large. At that time, the aircraft is really an "air gym".
However, the plane is about to land, so even if he wants to exercise, it won't last very long. Even with Xu Cang's physique, he should be able to withstand it.
What Xu Cang was worried about were the unknown failures, such as the deterioration of pitch control, so landing as soon as possible was the most important thing.
At this moment, Director Liu's voice came over the tower control frequency: "Xu Cang, is the plane in good condition?"
"There were some minor problems with the hydraulics, but overall it's still controllable."
"Okay!" Director Liu heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that everything was normal. "Then you can continue to descend to an altitude of 1,500 meters."
One thousand five hundred meters is the altitude of the final approach positioning point for blind landing on Runway 05. According to the procedure, the glide path should be intercepted at this altitude.
"Okay." Xu Cang didn't even finish repeating it. His eyes scanned the dashboard for a moment and finally settled on the boost panel.
At this moment, the aircraft cabin is connected to the outside world, so the cabin altitude is the same as the outside altitude. However, the aircraft altitude is already below 10,000 feet, but the cabin altitude warning light is still on.
Tan Heling noticed that Xu Cang was looking at the cabin altitude warning light and asked, "The altitude should be less than 10,000. Should we take off our oxygen masks? This warning light has some delay."
"Wait a moment." Xu Cang certainly knew that there would be a delay before the cockpit altitude warning light went off. The main reason why he hadn't taken off his oxygen mask was that he had begun to feel the stick force that made him feel delayed.
"Damn it!" Just now, Xu Cang pulled the steering wheel back slightly, but the feeling that was smooth just two or three minutes ago now became like moving forward in a quagmire, and could only produce extremely subtle reactions.
Xu Cang knew that this was not a jam again, but the hydraulic pressure had dropped to a limit. He began to control the rudder directly through the steel cable mechanical structure.
If there weren't this problem, Xu Cang would probably take off his oxygen mask as soon as the plane descended below 10,000 feet, but now he decided to wait.
At this altitude, the air is still thin, and he still hopes to maintain a relatively good condition.
"Xu Cang, the hydraulic pressure is gone. Be careful when you use the manual brake later and don't brake lightly." Mo Shangyun reminded from behind.
Although there is no hydraulic pressure, the brakes cannot be used in theory. But in fact, due to the existence of the pressure storage bottle, it can still provide a limited number of artificial brake pressures.
It is precisely because of the limit on the number of brakes that Mo Shangyun reminded Xu Cang not to brake lightly, because this would quickly consume the pressure of the aircraft's pressure storage tank. Continuous braking is the more correct way to deal with it.
"I know." Xu Cang nodded.
He checked the altimeter and it was already below 8,000 feet. The delayed cabin altitude light also went out. Xu Cang saw that it was almost time and pointed at Tan Heling: "I'll take off my oxygen mask first and hand over the controls."
Tan Heling immediately took the plate with both hands: "Take over the controls!"
Seeing that Tan Heling was ready, Xu Cang took off the oxygen mask with both hands, tidied up his messy hair, put on his headphones again, switched back to the MASK switch, and then said to Tan Heling: "Take the control! You take it off!"
Xu Cang held the steering wheel with his left hand. When Tan Heling took off his oxygen mask, he made a passenger announcement: "The plane will return to Jianchuan and land in five minutes. You can take off your oxygen masks. Please fasten your seat belts."
After Xu Cang finished his passenger announcement, Tan Heling took off his oxygen mask. His first words were: "Why did I feel the pole was a bit heavy just now?"
As soon as Tan Heling finished speaking, the aircraft's main warning light came on. Xu Cang looked up and immediately locked onto the hydraulic panel. As expected, the low-pressure lights of the engine-driven hydraulic pump and electric pump of the AB system all lit up.
Tan Heling also noticed the fault light on the hydraulic panel. He was not surprised at all. He had discovered that the hydraulic pressure was dropping rapidly on the lower DU just now. It was expected that all four hydraulic low-pressure lights would be on.
"Do we need to do the checklist for 'Manual recovery or loss of pressure in systems A and B'?" Tan Heling asked.
Xu Cang's face hardened: "Do it!"
Tan Heling checked the navigation DU page and saw that the plane was almost at the fifth approach. According to the estimated landing time on the CDU progress page, the plane would land in four minutes, which was probably too late.
“Not enough time!”
"Then do it according to memory!" Xu Cang put the throttle back to slow down while speaking, and at the same time held the plane's control wheel to maintain the plane's attitude, saying: "Check the altitude, good speed, flaps one!"
The excessive force under artificial recovery still made Xu Cang feel uncomfortable, and he felt more and more that he should exercise more.
Tan Heling, who was standing by, saw Xu Cang start to lower his flaps and knew that Xu Cang really didn't plan to circle. However, Xu Cang was the backbone of the cockpit now, and if he didn't want to circle and wait, then let him do it.
Thinking of this, Tan Heling directly put the flap handle to flap one position.
At the same time, Xu Cang was operating the aircraft while saying, "There is no pressure in the B system. We will have to manually lower the flaps in a while. Let's do some preparations first."
Under normal circumstances, the hydraulic B system is used to control the release of the aircraft's flaps. At this moment, the hydraulic pressure of the B system has returned to zero. Even if Tan Heling puts the flap handle to position one, the flaps will not actually change. An electric motor is needed to release the flaps using the backup flap release method.
However, before performing the backup flap extension, Xu Cang had to do some preliminary work, namely manually restoring some of the contents in the checklist.
As he spoke, Xu Cang raised his right hand and said to the two black switches on the flight control panel above his head: "AB system flight control switch... standby rudder position!"
Tan Heling knew that Xu Cang was completing the manual recovery checklist from memory, so he did not check the manual and directly followed Xu Cang's instructions. He stood up slightly, opened the AB system flight control switch cover, and switched it to the spare rudder position.
Xu Cang didn't even raise his head to check Tan Heling's movements. Controlling the plane had consumed too much of his energy. In a literal sense, he had no time to pay attention to Tan Heling's movements. Moreover, considering Tan Heling's level, he wouldn't make such a low-level mistake.
After hearing the sound of Tan Heling turning the switch, Xu Cang did not stop for a moment: "The yaw damper switch is turned on."
"The yaw damper switch is turned on." Tan Heling followed Xu Cang's instructions and sat down one after another.
Under normal circumstances, the deviation damper is turned on. However, when the hydraulic pressure of the AB system is too low, this switch may automatically jump off and need to be manually reconnected.
"All A and B system hydraulic pump switches are turned off."
Under Xu Cang's instruction, Tan Heling turned off all the hydraulic pumps and electric pumps driven by the AB system engine. Then Xu Cang signaled Tan Heling: "Set flaps to speed 15."
Under the conditions of manual recovery, the aircraft's landing configuration was not the conventional flaps 30, but flaps 15. Tan Heling needed to reset the reference speed on the approach page of the CDU because he had set the reference speed to flaps 30 when preparing just now.
Tan Heling had just set the new speed. Xu Cang pointed to the panel below Tan Heling and said, "Ground proximity flap inhibition switch, inhibit the flaps."
If the switch is not depressed when landing in a configuration other than flap 30, the configuration warning will be triggered. This does not have much impact, but it will greatly affect the pilot's control. After all, a sudden voice warning will cause a greater stress reaction, and the pilot may directly go around.
As soon as Tan Heling had calmed down, Xu Cang continued, "Our landing gear has already been lowered. We don't need to lower it manually. We just need to lower the flaps as a backup."
The retraction and extension of the landing gear relies on the A hydraulic system. If the landing gear needs to be released in this situation, some special means must be used, that is, manual lowering of the landing gear.
However, in order to obtain a higher descent rate, Xu Cang had already lowered the landing gear in advance, which saved some steps.
"Okay, now let's start lowering the flaps." Xu Cang pointed to a switch with a cover on the flight control panel and said, "The main switch for the standby flaps...pre-position, keep the standby flap position switch lowered. We plan to lower flaps to ten first, and then to flaps fifteen after blind landing is established. Okay, let's release it!"
Tan Heling was the captain himself, so he understood what Xu Cang said. So, he nodded, opened the cover of the standby flap main switch, turned it to the pre-position, and then continuously pressed the standby flap position switch.
Since the power for the backup flap release comes only from a small electric motor, the release speed is very slow. It took a long time before the flaps were put into the flap one position.
For some logical reason, the LETL lights will remain on until flaps reach ten, even if no conditions exist that would cause the LETL lights to illuminate.
The three people in the cockpit all had solid theoretical knowledge, and after the flap indicator indicated that the flaps had reached position one, they did not go through the corresponding checklist just because the leading edge transition lights were on.
Xu Cang glanced at the flap indicator and continued, "Flap five!"
Tan Heling said nothing and silently followed Xu Cang's instructions to release the flaps again.
At the same time, on the control tower of Jianchuan Airport, with the help of a telescope, Director Liu could already visually observe the 9951N aircraft in the sky that was about to cut into the fifth leg.
After watching for a while, Director Liu put down the telescope, looking relatively normal. So far, the crew has not reported any other problems. No report, that is the best news.
"Fortunately, fortunately, it was a false alarm." Director Liu even showed a hint of a smile.
After all, Xu Cang often encountered some world-class accidents. The forced landing on the sea near the coast of Qizhou some time ago was thrilling enough. In this way, some smaller flight accidents happened to Xu Cang, but he was thankful.
Director Liu threw the telescope to his assistant and scanned the situation of the apron below with a relaxed look. In order to make enough space for Xu Cang to perform, Director Liu not only cleared the airspace, but also almost cleared the airport pavement.
There was no aircraft on the runway and the main taxiway adjacent to it. One of the aircraft that was about to taxi out was stopped by ground control, and the nose of the aircraft was facing the main taxiway A, and it stayed where it was.
According to the plan, the plane will land soon. After the plane lands, the ground staff will do a patrol and confirm that there is no problem with the runway, then it can take off. Therefore, the Muhua Airlines plane parked in front of the main taxiway A did not taxi back.
"Is the trailer ready?" Director Liu confirmed with his assistant again .
The assistant quickly said, "We're ready. As soon as the plane lands, we'll arrange a tow truck to tow it away. The follow-up road surface inspection vehicle is also on standby. If everything goes well, takeoffs and landings can be resumed in ten to fifteen minutes."
"Good!" Director Liu was very satisfied with his assistant's arrangement. At this time, he turned his head and could already see a small black dot in the air on the fifth side of runway 05. It looked like the plane was not far from landing.
"What a nice day!" Perhaps it was the joy of surviving a disaster. When he saw 9951N hanging up the emergency code, his first thought was that it might not be an incident of the same level as the 747S2 switch.
However, the plane was about to land in less than ten minutes, how could I not be happy?
Thinking of this, Director Liu couldn't help but laugh and scold: "Xu Cang gave me such a big gift before I left!"
At this time in the cockpit, the aircraft configuration was ready and the aircraft had already turned into the final glideslope. Xu Cang took a final glance at the cockpit panel to confirm that there were no new problems, then he patted the thrust handle with his right hand: "Brother Tan, you control the throttle."
"Huh? What's wrong? Is there any problem?" Tan Heling's body tensed up and he instinctively looked up and scanned the panel. He thought something had happened.
Xu Cang shook his left hand: "Artificial recovery is too strenuous, and I can't control one hand anymore."
"Oh, this one." Tan Heling suddenly realized and laughed, and hurriedly took the thrust handle: "Okay, I'll control the throttle."
After freeing up his right hand, Xu Cang kept both hands on the board, which made him feel more comfortable. Just now, he only relied on his left hand to control the game, and he felt his left wrist was a little sore and numb.
Seeing that everything was going well and they were about to land, Mo Shangyun even felt like teasing him, "Xu Cang, you need to practice when you get down there. You can't even hold the plate."
"Yeah!" Xu Cang also smiled bitterly.
For a moment, the cockpit was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
It's no wonder that the three of them were lax. Although Xu Cang complained that he was exhausted, he was really unambiguous in the control. If he hadn't known that the plane had lost all hydraulic pressure, he wouldn't even feel that this was a manually restored plane from a physical sense.
As the plane got lower and lower, Xu Cang's hands remained steady. After falling below the decision altitude, Xu Cang entered the visual phase, and he asked Tan Heling to reduce the throttle slightly, so that the plane gradually fell slightly below the normal glide path in a relatively gentle manner.
With this operation, when the plane entered the runway, the PAPI showed exactly three reds and one white, which was consistent with the approach altitude that Xu Cang had previously estimated.
"Looks like we're lucky."
Seeing this, Xu Cang was still relaxed, and even had time to make a joke before landing. At this sentence, the other two people showed a knowing smile.
When the radio altimeter reported below twenty feet, without Xu Cang's instructions, Tan Heling began to slowly reduce the throttle based on his own experience, while Xu Cang gently increased the aircraft's attitude.
With a dull sound, the main wheel of the aircraft came down instantly. Because of the lack of hydraulic pressure, Xu Cang did not pre-position the speed brake and did not plan to use reverse thrust.
Just as he was about to manually pull up the speed brake, the plane, which was originally taxiing normally, suddenly began to tilt to the left.
At first, Xu Cang was planning to use the rudder to push the plane back to the center line of the runway, but he suddenly noticed out of the corner of his eye that the red light of the left landing gear indicator lighted up at some point.
Xu Cang's hair stood up all over his body in an instant. Without any thought, he pushed the throttle, which he had just retracted, all the way to the front and at the same time pressed the plate to the right in an attempt to prevent the plane from continuing to tilt to the left.
"Xu Cang, what are you doing?" Xu Cang's sudden action of stepping on the accelerator startled Tan Heling.
Just now, he took his left hand off the throttle lever after he slowed down the throttle. But now that the car has landed, why is Xu Cang crazy to step on the throttle to the maximum.
"The left landing gear is not lowered properly?" Mo Shangyun, who was sitting in the back, could see clearly and reacted faster. After Xu Cang, he also noticed that the red light of the left landing gear was on.
"What?" After Mo Shangyun's reminder, Tan Heling noticed that the red indicator light of the left landing gear was on. He had not noticed it at all.
Since it is right in front of the field of vision, the lighting of this red light will not cause the main warning light to light up.
In this way, Tan Heling immediately understood. No wonder the plane suddenly turned to the left just now. It turned out to be due to the landing gear. He thought Xu Cang did not control the direction well.
Caught off guard, the plane had already deviated a lot. If it taxied down again, the plane would not be able to get back on the runway and would definitely run off the runway. Therefore, Xu Cang wanted to make another circle and make a prepared landing with the landing gear partially retracted.
Although it is difficult, the risk can be controlled if you are well prepared. Moreover, you may be able to fix the problem in one more lap.
Fortunately, this situation occurred very quickly and Xu Cang reacted quickly. He did not pull up the speed brake or step on the brakes, so the plane did not slow down much.
Therefore, after Xu Cang stepped on the throttle, the plane's speed began to rise again under the roar of the two engines. As the speed increased, the aileron's control effect began to become obvious, and the left wing tip that was about to touch the ground stopped its downward trend and became horizontal again.
"Xu Cang, that's enough speed, let's go!" Mo Shangyun shouted from behind.
When Xu Cang heard that the speed was sufficient, he subconsciously pulled the steering wheel back with the force of a normal go-around. Xu Cang knew that the pitch of the steering wheel was limited, and even if he pushed harder, it would not move back too much, so he did not control his strength.
However, after Xu Cang pulled the steering wheel suddenly, it was pulled a long way back by Xu Cang.
Fortunately, the speed of the plane was far higher than the rotation speed, and the plane left the ground immediately after the control wheel was pulled. Otherwise, with Xu Cang's large rotation speed, the plane would definitely have rubbed the tail again.
"What's going on? It's not stuck anymore?" Seeing this reaction, Tan Heling's pupils suddenly contracted. Isn't this steering wheel only able to move forward and backward within a very small range? How could Xu Cang pull it back so far?
Mo Shangyun actually didn’t understand why such a change occurred, but this could be considered good news. At least the aircraft’s pitch control was no longer restricted.
Moreover, even though Xu Cang's initial movement with the stick was very rough, from a physical sense, it seemed that the plane did not show any signs of scraping the tail.
"Fortunately, fortunately! Xu Cang did not hit the tail of the plane!" Mo Shangyun couldn't help but rejoice.
However, Mo Shangyun soon noticed Xu Cang's ashen face. He felt something was wrong and immediately realized, "Xu Cang, what's wrong?"
Xu Cang was seen pushing the steering wheel with all his might, while shouting, "Oh no! It's stuck!"
Tan Heling was shocked, and he also held the steering wheel with both hands, and then exerted force. However, the steering wheel that was slightly movable just now was really rooted again, and under the control of the two people, it did not move at all.
"It's stuck, it's really stuck!"
Tan Heling almost held his breath at this moment. His mind went blank and he yelled, "How could this happen?"
The timing of the pitch jam was bad, very bad, and fatal! At this moment, the control wheel of the plane was stuck in the place where Xu Cang had pulled it back a lot of distance, so that the plane always maintained the pitch attitude of takeoff and climb.
This attitude was too big, too big for any phase of flight except takeoff! At this moment, the pitch trim of the aircraft was already set to the maximum forward, and they had no means to suppress the nose from pitching up.
Sure enough, in an extremely exaggerated posture, even at almost full thrust, the aircraft's climb rate was indeed like a wild horse running out of control, soaring into the sky, but the price of all this was a crazy descending speed.
In just less than ten seconds, the speed of the plane began to drop rapidly after the initial surge, and in an instant it entered the warning zone.
Xu Cang pushed the steering wheel forward frantically, but the steering wheel was like an unstoppable breath of death that was wrapped around him and did not move at all. At this moment , even Tan Heling realized the seriousness of the problem, and his thoughts seemed to be frozen at this moment.
"There is no other way!" Intellectually, Tan Heling came to this conclusion, but out of his biological instinct for survival, he was still pushing the steering wheel hard, trying to gain a last chance of survival.
But the overwhelming death pressure made him almost unable to breathe. Suddenly, the steering wheel he was holding began to shake wildly, which was transmitted to Tan Heling's wrist and heart, and seemed to arouse his will to give up.
"Xu Cang! Save me!"
Never before has Tan Heling had such a strong intention as at this moment.
However, amid his roar and the heart-shaking sound of the stall stick shaker, the lift that the aircraft's wing could generate in a deep stall became smaller and smaller due to the turbulence.
Finally, at that moment, the plane stopped rising. From the perspective of others, the plane was slowly hovering in the air with a posture that pierced the sky. This behemoth weighing tens of tons lost its last bit of lift, and the next moment, it was about to fall straight down like a free fall.
On the tower, Director Liu witnessed this scene that seemed like a freeze-frame of death. He let out a long breath, but this breath was filled with endless fear. He had already faced the arrival of death.
“It’s over!”
Everyone, everyone has smelled the breath of death, and even the eyes of the god of death have been fixed on this plane. However, at this moment, Xu Cang's eyes burst into an unprecedented light.
He is not afraid of death, because death should fear him!
He wants to change his fate in this situation where he is doomed to die!