Chapter 248: Don’t come closer! Don’t come closer! Don’t come closer!
Just as Xu Cang's plane was in Incheon, South Korea, thousands of miles away in the airspace, a Spring Airlines plane was about to land above the terminal area of Binjiang Airport in the northeast.
At this moment, although it is already March, I don’t know if it is a late spring cold snap or something else. Heavy snow is falling over Binjiang Airport. Everywhere I look, the earth is covered in silver, which is extremely enchanting.
However, compared to the biting cold wind outside, it was quite warm inside the plane and the air conditioning was quite powerful.
At this time, the plane had intercepted the glide path and was descending at a relatively constant rate of more than 800 feet per minute. It was snowing heavily that day, but the wind was not strong, and when the autopilot was engaged, the plane did not shake at all.
After receiving the landing permission from the tower, the captain habitually took a half-wet towel to wipe his face, and wiped off the sweat on his palms. Looking at the runway that had already come into view, he turned the windshield wipers to high position, adjusted his seat, and asked, "Did you bring a down jacket?"
"No, it's not that cold in Jianchuan. I didn't check the weather when I took off." The co-pilot said speechlessly, "But it doesn't matter. Anyway, I'm not the one flying back, so I'll just stay on the plane."
The flight from Jianchuan to Binjiang is a large flight, and a single segment can take more than five and a half hours. It is impossible for one group to fly back and forth, so it can only be divided into two groups. Now the two people in the cockpit fly the outbound leg, and then directly switch to the additional crew after landing, and then return to Jianchuan. The additional crew will fly the return leg, and they switch back and forth like this.
This is actually something that pilots don’t like very much, or more precisely, they don’t like adding crew members, because adding crew members only pays a small amount, but they have to take the same flight as the previous person, so it’s better to just carry out the flight.
However, Xu Cang was a pilot by profession and understood pilots' psychology better. Therefore, Spring Airlines' crew subsidy was 50% higher than that of most airlines.
In this way, although it is still not as good as the actual flights, it has increased by nearly half after all, and people have fewer complaints.
Of course, from the actual cost point of view, if there is no additional crew, the pilots can stay overnight. That is, after the outbound crew lands, they will get off the plane and go to the local hotel to rest, and then they will be replaced by another crew that has already rested in the local hotel. Later, they will take the next flight back, and so on.
Of course, this is just one of the combinations, and there are actually many other ways to schedule shifts.
However, if we take into account the pilot's overnight fees, hotel accommodation fees, meal allowance, and some miscellaneous expenses, the expenditure is actually much higher than adding a crew.
However, there is one advantage to doing this, which is that it will not consume too much of the pilot's duty time.
Although the crew members are not operating flights, they are still on duty and cannot be considered as resting.
For example, if a pilot flies from Jianchuan to Binjiang in the morning and stays overnight, his duty period ends when he gets off the plane and arrives at the hotel, and the rest period follows. In this way, he can perform an early shift tomorrow and have enough rest period.
However, if this pilot is adding crew members, and then flies over and then adds back, it may be evening or even night when he returns to Jianchuan. His duty period does not end in Binjiang, but has to wait until he returns to Jianchuan. In this way, he will not be able to fly some very early flights the next day because he does not have enough rest period. The emergence of this situation leads to a small waste of crew capacity, which actually needs to be converted into costs.
In comparison, adding crews and staying overnight on the spot each have their own advantages and disadvantages. However, Spring Airlines is not yet in such a shortage of capacity, so it chose to add crews, which has a lower intuitive cost.
If there are more routes in the future and the capacity is tight, it will be better to rest on the spot in the long run to preserve the strength of the crew.
"I forgot. This is my first time flying such a long segment." The captain scratched his head. He used to be from Muhua, and except for international routes, he had never flown such a long segment. This scale is probably only comparable to Shanghai-Urumqi: "Flying like this will make you feel how big our country is. If it's Korea next door, it would take an hour to fly from south to north to reach the sea, hehe."
For a moment, the cockpit was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
It's no wonder the captain didn't feel nervous. It was snowing heavily outside, but the windshield wipers were on and it didn't affect the view at all. It wasn't night and the light was good, so there was basically no impact.
Moreover, the five-side airflow is very stable and quite comfortable.
However, laughing and joking in front is one thing, and you still have to cheer up when you are about to land. So, after making the final fine-tuning of the seat, the captain released the thrust handle with his right hand, put it in front and pointed at an approximate position: "If you want to go around later, add throttle to this position, and then fine-tune the go-around thrust. First retract the flaps to fifteen, and then retract the wheels after rising positively. The order cannot be wrong. After 400 feet, follow the standard go-around procedure, which should be to turn right immediately and fly to Gaoyaotai, with an altitude of 1,800 meters."
The co-pilot nodded: "I understand."
"Okay!" After explaining some risk items, the captain directly disconnected the autopilot.
"Autopilot disconnected, FD mode."
Not long after disconnecting the autopilot, the captain also disconnected the autothrottle and entered full manual control. However, just like the previous experience, the aircraft was still stable after entering manual control.
"Is the airflow so stable?" The captain seemed a little surprised. He had not experienced such a stable airflow environment for a long time. After adjusting the balance, the captain even loosened his grip on the steering wheel slightly: "Look, you don't have to move at all."
"The tower just reported a one-meter headwind."
"That's comfortable enough. Are all the fifth-side landings in Binjiang so comfortable? In fact, it's a good opportunity for trainees to practice. What a pity." The captain only freed his hands for a second or two before grabbing the steering wheel again.
"Altitude one thousand feet, landing configuration complete, stabilized approach, lights on, landing instructions in place."
"Check, continue!"
"Five hundred feet altitude, good localizer, good glide path."
"Check, continue!"
"One hundred to decision! The runway is visible, straight ahead."
"Decision high, straight ahead on the runway!"
"Okay, keep going!" Two hundred feet above the ground, the captain looked ahead into the distance. At this moment, the runway of Binjiang Airport had been cleared long ago. There was a lot of snow piled on both sides of the runway, like a dam.
Perhaps due to the heavy snow, a small part of the runway that had been cleared turned white again. However, according to the tower, the runway braking effect was still good, so there should be no problem.
"I will land harder in a while, so don't worry if I sink a little faster." At a lower altitude, the captain could already see the details of the runway clearly . There seemed to be some water and snow on the road surface. In this case, it was better to land firmly to prevent the plane from skidding.
The captain was quite responsible and communicated with the co-pilot in advance. Because a solid landing means deliberately landing heavier and breaking the water film. If there is no communication in advance, the co-pilot will see that the plane is sinking too fast, and in extreme cases, he will feel that the conditions for a normal landing have been lost and call for a go-around, which will be embarrassing.
In principle, if the crew members in the cockpit, whether it is the captain or the co-pilot, call for a go-around, they must do a go-around.
"Got it!" the co-pilot responded.
At the moment the co-pilot finished speaking, the plane entered the airspace above the runway, at a standard altitude of fifty feet.
Then, the subsequent aircraft leveled off normally. However, when approaching landing, the captain artificially lowered the aircraft, causing the touchdown with a more obvious load.
As soon as the plane touched down, the captain immediately pulled up the speed brake and controlled the plane's taxiing direction.
The co-pilot immediately reported the system changes: "Speedbrake raised, reverse jet unlocked, reverse jet 81."
"Yeah." The captain smiled and looked at the runway surface: "It doesn't seem to be much water. Let's see how much water falls later. Don't issue a warning."
"It shouldn't be that serious. It's just a soft one at most. It doesn't matter if it's soft." The co-pilot said, "Autobrake released, ground speed 60."
The captain looked at the exit, then glanced at the ground speed, and made a rough estimate. He felt that he should be able to slow down to 20 knots at the next exit.
"The one in front."
Breaking away at 20 knots ground speed is definitely not risky and is a fairly common operation, so the co-pilot had no objection and just hummed.
"Turn up the air conditioning temperature." The captain pointed to the cabin temperature control panel. After confirming that the ground speed was less than 20 knots, he chose the right moment, abandoned the rudder, and began to change direction with the handwheel.
In a low-speed environment, the rudder surface is not effective enough to accurately control the taxiing direction, and the deflection angle is also limited, so it needs to be changed to a handwheel.
There was absolutely no problem with the captain's operation, so the co-pilot didn't pay too much attention to the outside world and just turned up the air-conditioning temperature a little as requested by the captain.
However, just as the captain turned away from the rudder and turned to the handwheel, he suddenly discovered a problem: the handwheel was stuck and could hardly move.
The captain initially thought that he was not pushing hard enough, but the hand wheel only moved slightly to the left. The captain immediately realized that it was not his fault, but the problem with the front wheel steering device.
At this time, the plane had already deviated slightly and was in an awkward position where it could neither turn into the exit lane nor return to the runway. At this moment, the captain reacted very quickly and stepped on the brakes to stop the plane.
However, although the runway surface was not as slippery as expected, it was still a wet runway after all, and the braking effect was definitely affected. In a hurry, the plane did not slow down immediately, and it was not until it was close to the edge of the runway that it was considered to have stopped.
But at the last moment, when the plane was moving slightly, the captain and the co-pilot suddenly heard a bang. It was the sound of the front wheel crushing the side light. Then the nose of the plane sank suddenly, and finally stopped.
However, the hearts of the captain and the co-pilot also sank to the bottom.
The front wheel is in the grass!
…
On Flight 552, Professor Wang Jingming had already sat in the seat next to Xu Cang. Perhaps because he felt a little uncomfortable after the sudden upgrade, Professor Wang Jingming seemed a little embarrassed.
"Little brother, is it okay for me to sit here? I have an economy class ticket."
Xu Cang smiled and said, "It's okay, just sit down."
"Oh. Little brother, you just said that you can solve the problem of turning the situation around. How do you do it?" For some reason, in this conversation, Xu Cang seemed more like the elder, while Wang Jingming seemed a little restrained. The roles were reversed.
"Professor, after you land, just buy another ticket for the nearest time."
"But the key is that I don't have that much money." Wang Jingming said helplessly.
In fact, it wasn't that he couldn't afford a plane ticket at all, but after buying it, his pockets would be almost empty, and he still had things to do later.
"It's okay. This is Muhua Airlines' fault. They will pay for your ticket. You can contact Muhua Airlines customer service later." Xu Cang said, looking at the flight attendant who was still standing in the corridor: "Is that right?"
The flight attendant was stunned for a moment. How could this matter have anything to do with Muhua Airlines? However, the flight attendant was really quick to react and said, "Sir, can you please leave your contact information? We will contact you individually later. Just keep your ticket voucher and we will be responsible for compensation."
Wang Jingming was overjoyed when he heard this, and wrote his cell phone number on a cleaning bag and handed it to the flight attendant.
The chief flight attendant confirmed that there was no problem, exchanged glances with Xu Cang, and then returned to the front cabin workroom.
Although he would have to buy a new ticket and wait a longer time in the terminal for the next flight, Wang Jingming was already quite satisfied with the result.
"Little brother, thanks so much to you this time, otherwise I really don't know what to do." Wang Jingming said gratefully.
Xu Cang waved his hand and said, "Professor Wang, my name is Xu Cang, you can just call me Xiao Xu. It is my honor ."
"What great scientist? I'm just an unknown materials researcher." Wang Jingming always puts himself in a relatively low position. Perhaps this is not just towards Xu Cang, but he has always behaved like this in his previous life and work, trembling with fear and caution.
For some reason, Xu Cang felt a sour feeling in his heart.
"Xu Cang, are you simply curious, or are you also working in a related field?"
Xu Cang smiled and said, "I work in aerospace engineering."
"Oh my! You are already in your twenties and you are already involved in the development of aero engines. The young are formidable, the young are formidable." After talking about science and technology, Wang Jingming was no longer as reserved as before, and he seemed to be more relaxed: "As for aero engines, which direction will you go?"
For example, in the case of engines or other similar research, the higher the level, the more detailed the research direction. For example, when studying the whole engine as an undergraduate, you only focus on the high-pressure system when studying for a master's degree, and only study the high-pressure turbine blades when studying for a doctorate.
In fact, Wang Jingming just asked casually. He felt that Xu Cang should be only dealing with the overall direction of aerospace engines and had not yet reached the stage of subject subdivision.
However, Xu Cang said: "I plan to set up an aeroengine research and development team."
Wang Jingming was stunned. After half a minute, he confirmed that Xu Cang was not joking and laughed dryly: "Young people really have great ambitions."
To be honest, Wang Jingming didn't know how to respond to Xu Cang's words just now.
If Xu Cang was not joking, then he was insane. However, Xu Cang helped him after all, so Wang Jingming still spoke in a more reserved way.
"Professor Wang, do you think I'm daydreaming?"
Wang Jingming waved his hands quickly: "No, no, Xu Cang, you misunderstood. I know that domestic aerospace engine development is very difficult, and it is quite difficult for you to have this intention."
"No, no, no, Professor Wang, I not only have this intention, I will also put it into action. In the group I have envisioned, only the material of the high-pressure turbine blades has not yet been well solved, but Professor Wang, your research direction is highly consistent with what I need."
Wang Jingming finally understood what Xu Cang meant: "Little brother, are you serious?"
"Of course it's true." Xu Cang smiled and said, "I have found alternatives or solutions for the engine's low-pressure system and the core engine rotor. Now the only problem left is the material of the high-pressure turbine. Professor Wang, I know your current situation. If you come to me, you can get more funding, a more relaxed environment, and a group of comrades with the same goal!"
When Xu Cang mentioned the funding and working environment, Wang Jingming didn't react much. However, when Xu Cang mentioned comrades with the same goal, Wang Jingming's eyes finally showed a change.
Yes, it would be wonderful if we could have a group of comrades and friends-in-arms who could work towards the same goal.
However, it was all just a dream.
"I don't know how you replace or solve the low-pressure system and core rotor problems, but this is so fantastic that I can't believe it."
"Yeah, no one would believe it." Xu Cang expressed his understanding of Wang Jingming's doubts: "Professor Wang, your research direction and its main application field is the high-pressure turbine of the engine, so you must know some domestic aerospace researchers, such as Director Deng Peng?"
"Deng Peng? Director of the Power Research Institute of AVIC?" Wang Jingming was stunned for a moment: "What's wrong?"
Xu Cang chuckled, "I understand that you don't believe me, but if it's Director Deng Peng's opinion, it should be worth considering. My name is Xu Cang, just tell him so, and he will tell you what kind of person I am. Then, you can decide whether to come to me or not."
Xu Cang looked at the time and slowly stood up: "I'm going to the front now. I'm glad to meet you. I hope we can have the opportunity to work together in the future."
After saying that, Xu Cang walked towards the front cabin workshop, and then the corridor curtain was pulled open, blocking Wang Jingming's view.
Looking at Xu Cang who had disappeared, Wang Jingming murmured Xu Cang's name and memorized it silently.
Soon, Xu Cang appeared in the cockpit. Seeing Xu Cang coming in, the captain handed him a small note: "The latest traffic situation at Incheon Airport: heavy fog and marginal weather. We will be turning to approach soon. If Incheon Approach asks for our opinion, what should we say?"
The captain seemed to be quite sensible. He knew who was the leader in the cockpit and immediately asked Xu Cang for his opinion.
"Have you contacted the airport in advance?" Xu Cang glanced at the content of the communication and then put it away: "How is the take-off and landing at this airport now?"
"I've asked." At this time, the co-pilot said, "The visibility at Incheon Airport did not meet the standard before, so there were no takeoffs or landings. It has just improved, and we are the first one. If we don't land, we will have to rearrange the approach sequence, which will probably waste 30 to 40 minutes."
Xu Cang looked at the fuel gauge and said, "Wait for 30 to 40 minutes. Is there enough fuel?"
"Enough. We can circle and wait for an hour and a half." The captain asked, "What do you mean?"
Xu Cang pursed his lips and said, "Don't approach. Let other planes go down first to test the waters. We will get in line again!"
