Chapter 20: Life after three years
The radio altitude was 2,500 feet, the radio altimeter was in effect, and the tower gave landing permission: "Flight feather 6321, surface wind 16013, gust 16 meters, runway 23 is clear for landing, pay attention to the final airflow ."
"Runway 23 is clear for landing, flight feather 6321." Xu Cang replied to the tower, then held the control wheel, but did not apply force, and stepped on the rudder pedals. He could feel the captain constantly adjusting the rudder input, and the amplitude of the movement was particularly large.
"The landing instructions are available." Xu Cang's eyes fell on the upper left corner of the navigation page, which showed real-time wind speed in the air.
Although the final airflow at Jianchuan Airport is better than that at Erhai Airport, it is still a tricky level for domestic airports. In addition, in the case of a single-engine aircraft, the aircraft's ability to resist crosswinds and gusts is significantly reduced. The aircraft rises and falls like a lone boat in the raging sea, which is quite thrilling.
Turbulence constantly impacts the vertical tail, which in turn affects the crew's ability to control the sideslip of the aircraft. When the two engines are working properly, the yaw damper will help eliminate the sideslip, so most pilots do not control the rudder in the air. However, the emergence of a single engine directly breaks the balancing ability of the yaw damper.
In fact, if the crosswind of 160° at Jianchuan Airport is stable, the vertical tail will cause the nose to turn left. This crosswind effect can offset the natural right turn of the nose caused by the inconsistent thrust to a certain extent.
However, the final airflow at Jianchuan Airport is not stable. Sometimes the sudden strong right wind will not only aggravate the sideslip of the aircraft, but even full pressure on the rudder cannot stop the sideslip of the aircraft.
The most dangerous thing at this time is to fully step on the left rudder, but under the influence of airflow, the aircraft needs to press the left pressure plate to maintain the aircraft on the localizer.
Left rudder and right turn is the normal operation. Left rudder and left turn is very easy to turn the plane over.
The captain tried to fly the plane on autopilot during the descent, but due to the turbulence, the autopilot could not maintain a normal approach attitude. The captain had no choice but to fly the plane manually.
However, the complexity of the aircraft's status far exceeded his expectations. Even with guidance to the aircraft's attitude, the autothrottle could not be engaged. In some extreme cases, the captain even had to increase the throttle of the No. 1 engine to create a greater thrust difference to offset the impact of the right wind.
However, once the throttle is moved, a chain reaction of airspeed will occur. In the single-engine landing configuration, the speed zone is already limited. Turbulence itself will also cause a drastic change in speed. Add the change of closing the throttle, and the captain has already started to panic at an altitude of 1,000 feet.
"One thousand feet, landing configuration completed!" Xu Cang turned on all the external lights and sent a signal to the cabin that it was about to land. Standing next to him, Xu Cang was terrified when he saw the captain operating the aircraft, so he asked, "Do you want me to do it?"
However, the captain just kept his head down and operated the plane, and didn't respond to Xu Cang for a long time. It's not that he didn't hear Xu Cang's words, but all his energy was used in operating the plane, and he had no energy to communicate with Xu Cang.
This is obviously a critical point, the captain can't take it anymore!
To be honest, the wind at Jianchuan Airport today was very strange. Generally speaking, when the wind comes down from a high altitude, the wind speed will be slightly reduced due to the friction with the ground. In this way, the difficulty of operation will be reduced in a low-altitude environment.
But for some reason, as the plane's altitude decreased, the turbulence became more and more intense, so that the captain was so exhausted that he had no time to take care of anything else.
Shortly after the plane passed an altitude of one thousand feet, it suddenly lowered its head sharply and soared upward at a speed like a rocket.
The change startled the captain, who instinctively pressed the plate down to keep up with the guidance. However, the pressure was too strong, causing the aircraft's descent rate to increase suddenly from 900 feet to 1,500 feet.
Although the concept of stabilized approach was not taken so seriously in this era, it was definitely abnormal to have a high descent rate of 1,500 feet per minute in a low-altitude environment below 1,000 feet.
Xu Cang was about to remind him, but the co-pilot sitting in the back couldn't help but shout out, "Rate of descent!"
But the problem the captain faced was not just the excessive rate of descent, but the fact that he did not pull back the throttle when he held the plate. On the final approach, when pressing down on the plate, the throttle should be reduced, which should be common sense, but the captain made such a low mistake.
He had reached his limit, and the huge pressure had begun to affect the captain's basic control ability. Even the co-pilot, who was fully aware of the situation at the moment, was overly nervous, and his vision began to become paranoid and narrow.
The co-pilot was the first to notice the excessive descent rate, but he ignored the soaring airspeed. At this time, the speed of the aircraft was very close to the maximum speed band.
"They are all dead !" Xu Cang thought.
There was only one person who remained calm in the cockpit, and that was Xu Cang. He did not even remind the captain of the speed issue, because he knew that the captain would not be able to respond to his reminder in time due to his overloaded state.
Although it was a bit illegal, Xu Cang still decided to intervene in the captain's control at this time. Without informing the captain of his intention, Xu Cang slapped the back of the captain's right hand with his left hand, and the thrust handle of the No. 1 engine also slapped the slow thrust. At the same time, Xu Cang suddenly shouted: "Get out of here!"
It can only be said that the captain is still the captain, even in this almost overloaded state. Without any reminder from Xu Cang, the action of Xu Cang forcibly closing the throttle reflected Xu Cang's intention.
As the No. 1 throttle is reduced, the thrust difference between the two wings almost disappears, and the steering amount must also be reduced, otherwise the aircraft will form a new sideslip.
At Xu Cang's shout, the captain quickly retracted his left foot. Then, he gently shook the steering wheel upwards, and the plane's descent rate instantly decreased. At the same time, he increased the throttle of the No. 1 engine, and the steering volume also followed suit.
Xu Cang's grip on the steering wheel became stronger and stronger, he was waiting for the captain to hand over the control at any time. In fact, according to Xu Cang's understanding, it would be better to let him fly from now on, but he knew that this was impossible, involving the pride of a captain, and he had to try it once.
When the plane was at an altitude of 500 feet, Xu Cang could clearly see the buildings near the airport. Suddenly, he accidentally saw an office building with a white exterior.
This kind of building is very common in the airport office area, but it attracted Xu Cang's attention in an instant. Because there was a huge trademark on the central roof of this office building. It was a huge green leaf, exactly the same as the trademark on the packaging of the third-generation immunosuppressant developed three years later.
