The moment Xu Cang grabbed the steering wheel, he encountered the same situation as David had encountered before.
Due to the broken right wing, the aircraft was almost out of control in rolling.
Since the Wright brothers invented the airplane, the basic control principle has not changed fundamentally. As we all know, the pilot uses ailerons to control the roll of the airplane, but this control method is not unilateral, but is completed by the cooperation of the ailerons on the left and right sides.
For example, if the plane wants to turn left, when the pilot presses the steering wheel to the left, the aileron on the left wing pitches up, causing the left wing to move downward, while the aileron on the right wing pitches down, causing the right wing to move upward.
The left wing moves down and the right wing moves up, and the two work together to complete a smooth left roll.
However, the right wing was broken and most of the aileron components on the right wing disappeared, which resulted in only the left aileron being able to produce a deflection torque. However, due to the lift difference between the two wings, the rolling torque of the left aileron alone could not be offset, so the aircraft began to roll uncontrollably to the right.
After Xu Cang tried several times and still failed to completely change the state of the aircraft, he finally gave up this aimless and meaningless attempt.
At this moment, the plane was not completely uncontrollable, but after the right wing broke, the state of the entire plane and the reaction after the control input were completely beyond Xu Cang's understanding. He began to be confused and bewildered, and began to understand why this was an unsolvable situation.
"Xu Cang, what should we do? What should we do?" David almost collapsed after realizing that Xu Cang might really be helpless.
At this time, the plane was tilted at a huge amount, and the lift force generated by the airflow on the left wing was not much. Therefore, on the variometer, the plane always maintained an extremely large descent rate of 3,000 feet per minute. At the moment when the wing broke, the plane's altitude was only more than 10,000 feet. If it continued like this, the plane would crash in less than two or three minutes.
As the plane was falling rapidly, the energy conversion caused the speed of the plane to become very high, and the Munich Airport, which was not too far away, was now within reach. However, this airport, which was so close, seemed to be separated from us forever and could not be reached.
The altitude is sufficient, but the problem is that the plane is no longer controllable. How can we bring the uncontrollable plane to the ground smoothly?
This is the most critical issue.
Obviously, no one can give this answer.
Xu Cang did not lie. In this situation, only God could survive.
The plane's descent rate fluctuated greatly, sometimes falling back to less than 3,000 feet per minute, and sometimes increasing to nearly 5,000 feet per minute. With such a terrifying descent rate, the plane was rapidly approaching the ground, and after breaking through the clouds, David could even vaguely see the ground.
"We're dead, we're dead!" David roared madly, venting his fear that was surging like a flood. It was the mighty power of nature, the unchangeable outcome, just like the pitiful and sad reality they were facing now.
Two minutes, in two minutes this plane will turn into a sea of ​​fire and no one will survive.
The goddess of fate has cast her watchful eyes upon them.
Xu Cang tried his best to control his breathing and forced himself to calm down. His chaotic thoughts would only make him lose his last chance of survival in the wrong action. However, facing this almost unsolvable situation, Xu Cang's heart was also filled with fear. He was also a human being and he had human emotions, just like David who was already waiting for the death sentence. He could no longer calm down.
At this moment, Xu Cang's left hand holding the steering wheel began to tremble slightly and irregularly. He could not control his left hand, and could not even hold the steering wheel.
"Am I really afraid?" Xu Cang thought dejectedly.
Before, he was afraid that he had lost his telepathic connection with the plane, and he was afraid that he would no longer be the omnipotent son of the sky.
Now, he was afraid of death, afraid of the most primitive and essential terror of human beings.
Fear makes people cowardly.
Fear holds people back.
Fear confuses people.
Xu Cang should have thought of all this. Even at his peak, he could not solve the unsolvable problem of a broken wing. This was a dead end. Just now, he took over the control of the plane again, still thinking about changing his fate out of the instinct of survival, but everything was just like an ant trying to shake a tree.
That uncontrolled left hand is the most true portrayal of Xu Cang.
He is also a human being, a humble mortal.
He was eventually devoured by his own inner demons.
Perhaps he sensed Xu Cang's emotions, or perhaps this was not a situation that could be understood by careful feeling. In the cabin, the heavily tilted fuselage and the madly falling body like a falling star had already revealed the problems they were facing.
There were a lot of debris scattered in the cabin, and drink stains were everywhere. These were the consequences of the tilting of the fuselage.
The passengers in the cabin were obedient and had fastened their seat belts, so when the wing broke and the fuselage tilted suddenly, no passengers were thrown out. However, due to the tilt of the fuselage, most of them were in a situation where their feet were dangling in the air, especially the passengers in the left window row.
They were frightened and confused, like rotten and ignorant animals waiting for the butcher's knife of death.
They did not roar or go crazy. When the fuselage began to tilt, they had already used up all their strength to make the most fervent cries for help, but there was no response. The ruthless and cold reality extinguished their unrealistic fantasies.
Many people could only make long and weak moans in their hoarse throats, which matched their suspended posture, like dying people hanging on a dead tree with a noose around their necks.
Captain David was lucky because he was not numb and had not lost his instinct to survive under the scythe of death.
However, the aura of fear emanating from his body was the most greedy delicacy for the Death Beast.
The end is so near, so near that it feels as cold as midnight.
Captain David no longer knew how to change his fate at this moment. In this state of shock and bewilderment, he could only pick up the faith that was not compatible with his profession and gently called out, "Jesus Christ."
As Captain David prayed, the plane broke through all the clouds in an uncontrollable and mad fall. The dim and warm sunlight shone on Xu Cang's face, and it seemed to blow away the dust and haze in Xu Cang's heart in an instant.
The vast land came into view, he saw everything clearly, and saw where his fear came from!
He never feared death.
He faced death, experienced death, and then defeated death, so he is here now and has a second life.
Death is never the biggest fear, loss is!
Only when you have something can you experience the pain of losing it. Xu Cang lost something once, and now he is lucky enough to experience the feeling of having something again. How can he repeat the pain of losing something?
He has an infinite attachment to this beautiful world. Losing her is Xu Cang's greatest fear.
The sunlight at dusk is so kind, it is the last bit of tenderness that the sun gives to the world before the day turns to night. It will engrave this tenderness in the hearts of the world, letting them remember that as long as they survive the cold night, warmth will come.
This is hope!
As long as there is hope!
The sun caressed Xu Cang's pale face, gently and softly. At this moment, half of the sun had already disappeared below the horizon, and the night was about to come, just like Xu Cang's fate at this moment.
But at this moment, the gentleness that penetrated his heart seemed to awaken the deepest memory in Xu Cang's heart, the sadness when he sank into the endless seabed in Tokyo Bay.
At that time, he made his own choice, and greeted his own death with sorrow and pity, until a pair of warm and gentle arms held him tightly, until the hot and loving breath flowed into his mouth, until he saw her face clearly...
Until this moment, he understood everything!
Endless attachment to the world should never be the rope that binds your hands and feet, but should be the sun at dusk, which imprints the light of hope in your heart and preserves it before the deep darkness comes.
"I can't die here, I shouldn't die here!"
Hope is an interesting thing. It can also make people lose their thinking and reason. However, compared to the despair that causes people to hesitate to move forward, hope will burst out with the brightest light and courage in the world at this moment.
Courage is the pioneer of survival.
Xu Cang was no longer shaken or confused. He had realized some things and was therefore extremely determined.
His heart contracted suddenly, and the violent heartbeat pumped blood to his limbs. Previously, his limbs, which had been numb from fear and despair, regained their mobility. He was no longer afraid of the demon in his heart, because it no longer existed.
Everything finally returned to its original track. As Xu Cang breathed, he could feel everything about the plane, and that incomparable sense of harmony returned.
No, he didn’t come back, but he reached an unprecedented height. Xu Cang knew that he had reached his... peak form!
His thoughts and perceptions enveloped the aircraft. He didn't need to look at the instruments, he didn't need to look at the outside world, he didn't need to refer to any other external objects, he could know everything about the aircraft.
In the extremely complicated situation at this moment, Xu Cang seemed to see a little bit of hidden rules, which was their way of survival.
Suddenly, Xu Cang finally moved!
He did not operate the plane aimlessly, but gently stepped on the left rudder that had been returned to the correct position. Compared with various previous attempts, this time the control input was so simple, but just like that, the plane that was originally falling like a rock suddenly froze, and the descent rate dropped from more than 4,000 feet per minute to almost 2,000 feet per minute.
Sitting in the cabin, the girl who had previously talked with Xu Cang was the first to realize the changes in the plane. Then Captain Schneider in the back of the cockpit also vaguely felt a slight change with a sense of sympathy.
"Stopped!?" He immediately cast his gaze towards the aircraft's altitude indicator, and a descent rate of two thousand feet per minute suddenly appeared before his eyes.
"No, no, no, this..." Schneider almost held his breath. Since the wing broke, the plane's descent rate has never been so small. This is not the result of a natural fall. It is human intervention.
Suddenly, he fixed his gaze on the tenacious and resolute figure on the left.
"He did?"
As the initiator of everything, Xu Cang was the first person to notice the changes in the plane.
I pressed the left rudder, but the plane's descent rate decreased?
This shouldn't be something that could be related, but it happened.
Xu Cang's expression didn't change at all. He stepped on the left rudder again. At this moment, the plane's descent rate slowly dropped to more than 1,500 feet per minute.
At this moment, even Captain David noticed that the state of the aircraft had changed and it was no longer out of control.
"Xu Cang, you..." Captain David didn't know what Xu Cang had done, but under such a large tilt and the lack of lift, the aircraft was able to maintain a descent rate of more than 1,500 feet per minute. This was obviously not a normal performance.
Xu Cang is flying the plane! ?
Captain Schneider in the back could see clearly what Xu Cang was doing.
"Push left rudder?" Captain Schneider had no idea what the left rudder input had to do with the reduction in the rate of descent, but all this was happening right before his eyes. He could not understand Xu Cang's operation, nor could he understand Xu Cang's condition, but he could understand that everything was no longer a foregone conclusion.
There is life!
As long as the plane could be controlled, even in a way he couldn't understand, it worked.
Schneider opened his mouth, but he didn't dare to speak or disturb Xu Cang. He was afraid of losing this hard-earned hope that was like a mirage in the water.
At this time, Xu Cang slightly pushed the pole down.
Push the stick up and pitch the nose down, this is the most basic knowledge in the aviation world.
However, this plane actually started to turn slowly from its original large tilt to the right.
That’s right, the roll that had been unable to reverse no matter how hard it tried before actually loosened at this moment.
Then, Xu Cang followed the action of the push rod and pressed the plate to the left, and the plane's wing rolled to the left again, and finally it was able to maintain a tilt angle of about 30 degrees, and maintained a roughly level flight posture for a period of time. After that, about four or five seconds later, the plane's tilt angle increased again, returning to a tilt angle of about 50 degrees.
However, this is completely enough, which means that there is a slight possibility that the plane can land.
On the right side, Captain David almost let out a long roar. It was like Jesus Christ descending upon Xu Cang. Compared to the previous tilt angle of more than 70 degrees, the current tilt angle of about 30 degrees was barely enough for landing.
Xu Cang really did it! He really controlled the plane.
"How could this be possible? How on earth did he do it?" Captain David roared in his heart. Faced with such inhuman operations, he had already revered Xu Cang as a god.
However, with his remaining sanity, David seemed to understand Xu Cang's thoughts to some extent.
Due to the huge lift difference between the two wings, the aileron on the left wing alone cannot suppress the tilt of the aircraft fuselage. Therefore, when the wing breaks, the fuselage tilt is inevitable, which is the only way to maintain flight. However, the aircraft will definitely not be able to land if the tilt angle is maintained at such a large angle, so before landing, the fuselage of the aircraft must be straightened, at least to a relatively acceptable angle.
Previously, the aircraft could not be controlled at all due to the excessive tilt of the fuselage. It could only fall at a very fast speed in the absence of lift, which was an unsolvable situation.
However, Xu Cang seemed to have found a glimmer of hope in this doomed situation, which was the functional interchange between the elevator and the vertical tail.
In fact, after the wing of the plane broke, it still had lift, and after dumping a large amount of fuel, the total weight of the plane was unusually small. Even in the case of a single engine, even at a huge tilt angle, the large left wing could still generate relatively sufficient lift.
This lift may be decomposed to the point where the aircraft cannot climb or even fly level, but it is definitely possible to maintain a controllable descent rate. The only problem is that there are no rudders to control the pitch of the aircraft.
On a normal biplane, if there is no elevator to control the pitch of the aircraft, even if the wings on both sides can generate sufficient lift, the aircraft may still fall. Therefore, finding a way to control the pitch of the aircraft when the fuselage tilts sharply is the only way to survive.
Obviously, pilots at the level of David or Schneider can understand most of the flight controls, but this alone is completely insufficient to cope with the current situation, so this is the gap between Xu Cang and ordinary pilots.
At this time, the state of the aircraft is extremely complex and beyond the scope of human brain's understanding.
However, after waking up, Xu Cang was able to perform anti-human operations in ways beyond human cognition.
When the fuselage tilted sharply, the functions of the elevator that originally controlled the pitch of the aircraft and the rudder that originally controlled the yaw of the aircraft underwent a fundamental change. In other words, Xu Cang was actually using the rudder to control the pitch of the aircraft, and the elevator to control the yaw of the aircraft.
The yaw of an aircraft is not completely equivalent to its effect on rolling. However, the two can assist each other at certain times, such as when the aileron is stuck, in addition to using the differential throttle, the pilot usually uses the rudder to assist in rolling operations.
Before this, Xu Cang pushed up the stick and pitched the elevator down, which caused the aircraft to generate a yaw moment to the left. At the same time, he pressed the plate to the left, which created a rolling moment to the left. The two-phase action could to some extent offset the uncontrollable rolling moment to the right caused by the lift difference.
This is true from a theoretical analysis, but this extremely anti-human and extremely complex manipulation method is simply difficult for humans to control. Xu Cang must first break the inherent concept of traditional manipulation methods and form a new corresponding relationship, and the theory and practice are completely different.
In terms of control, no one knows what effect Xu Cang can achieve by controlling the pitch of the aircraft through the rudder. Because the shape and area of ​​the vertical tail are completely different from the horizontal tail, the rudder effect they produce is also different. Therefore, Xu Cang has no idea what the pitch attitude of the aircraft will be when he steps on it, which makes it impossible to accurately control the aircraft, and can only rely on the pilot's feeling.
Human perception is a very mysterious state. It can be very accurate, or it can be far off the mark.
Intellectually speaking, the latter is far more likely than the former.
Unfortunately, landing an airplane is an operation that requires extremely high precision.
However, compared to the previous almost desperate situation, things are much better now.
As the plane descended in a nearly controllable manner, David could vaguely see the runway in Munich. At this moment, a glimmer of hope ignited in his heart again.
Could it be possible to really survive?
He touched his chin, hesitated for a long time, and asked, "Can I go down?"
Xu Cang pursed his lips and replied in an almost mechanical tone: "No!"
"Why?"
Xu Cang frowned: "The runway is too short!"
"If we land at the current speed, the runway in Munich is not enough, absolutely not enough!"
"How fast should we land at the current speed?" David checked the airspeed indicator. "Why should we land at the current speed? This speed is almost twice the approach speed under normal configuration."
That's right, the current speed is very high, so high that even the flaps can't be deployed. But according to Xu Cang's intention, it is necessary to complete the landing at this speed, which is simply impossible.
"This speed is too high. There is no way we can land, Xu Cang!" Captain Schneider shouted, "Twice the approach speed, the 3,600-meter runway at Munich Airport is not enough."
Munich Airport has two runways, and now they want to approach the longer runway 17/35. Before the expansion, this runway was 3,200 meters long, which is enough for most aircraft, but for the Boeing 777, the 3,200-meter runway is a little stretched in some special circumstances.
Therefore, before the expansion, Munich Airport would not accept Boeing 777 aircraft.
However, during the expansion project, the runway was extended by 400 meters. A 3,600-meter runway can basically handle the Boeing 777. However, this does not mean that all situations can be solved. For example, now Xu Cang wants to land at nearly twice the normal approach speed.
It was obvious that the landing stopping distance was strongly correlated with the approach speed. Captain Schneider did not even need to consult the landing distance table to determine that the 3,600-meter runway was completely inadequate.
There is no way, the speed is too fast, so fast that it is unimaginable.
"Why are you approaching at such a high speed?" David found it difficult to understand Xu Cang's behavior. It was not that he couldn't reduce the throttle or slow down, so why did he approach at such a high speed? Wasn't he asking for trouble?
"No!" Xu Cang just said coldly.
"Why?" Although hope was right in front of him, Xu Cang's stubbornness made David feel a little anxious.
"Why?" Xu Cang snorted: "Rudder effect."
After saying that, Xu Cang directly reduced the throttle and stepped on the left rudder at the same time. In this way, the plane's descent rate was stopped, but the speed began to drop rapidly.
Originally, Xu Cang had been pressing down on the left wheel while slightly pushing the bar up to eliminate the rolling moment to the right.
Although this cannot always keep the tilt angle of the fuselage wing at 30 degrees, it is still much better than the previous tilt angle of more than 70 degrees. Moreover, for the sake of control stability and actual flight performance, Xu Cang cannot always maintain the aircraft at a small tilt angle. Now the tilt angle of about 50 degrees is more appropriate.
However, at the moment when the speed decreased, the aircraft, which had originally had a slightly stable tilt angle, immediately rolled to the right, and the rolling torque suppressed by the left aileron and horizontal tail could no longer be controlled. Almost before David could react, the aircraft's tilt angle exceeded 70 degrees.
At such a large tilt angle, the lift of the left wing was further decomposed, so that the descent rate began to increase again.
Moreover, because of the single engine, the plane naturally had a side slip. In order to use the rudder to control the pitch of the plane, Xu Cang could only tolerate the existence of this side slip. When the plane turned sharply to the right and had a side slip, it almost fell diagonally to the right and entered an extremely dangerous low-altitude tailspin.
Xu Cang's actual operation scared David to death.
Fortunately, Xu Cang's repair maneuvers were very quick. He stepped on the throttle and then applied more left rudder to increase the speed. In this way, the plane was able to return to a slightly stable state.
"Speed, rudder effect!" Captain Schneider's face became extremely gloomy again.
He began to understand what Xu Cang meant!
As we all know, the control surface effect has a direct positive correlation with the airflow speed passing through the wing surface. The faster the airflow speed, the stronger the control surface effect. This is relatively easy to understand.
The air flow speed is directly related to the aircraft speed. As long as the aircraft slows down, the air flow speed passing decrease, which will cause the corresponding control surface effect to decrease.
The key to the fragile stability that Xu Cang maintained just now was actually that Xu Cang increased the yaw moment generated by the horizontal tail to assist the rolling moment of the left aileron, thereby suppressing the rolling moment caused by the lift difference.
However, as the speed decreases, the control surface effect decreases, and the yaw moment that the horizontal tail can generate will decrease at an extremely exaggerated rate, thus failing to assist the rolling moment of the left aileron. In this way, the aircraft will return to its original state and begin to roll to the right uncontrollably.
The aircraft is now approaching the runway at an angle, and there is still a lot of directional margin, so the landing direction of the aircraft is not the most direct problem. Instead, the aircraft is unable to reduce the tilt angle in the deceleration state, so it cannot land normally.
No pilot could land sideways, which would be worse than a broken wing.
David had seen it before. If he maintained a high speed, Xu Cang could at least reduce the tilt angle of the aircraft to about 30 degrees in a short period of time. Although this angle was still large, it was still possible to land, so at least there was a chance.
But Xu Cang's operation just now proved that as long as the aircraft slowed down, it was impossible for the aircraft to reduce the tilt angle to 30 degrees, not even 50 degrees, and the situation was even worse. This meant that there was no possibility of landing at all.
When the aircraft slows down, the effect of the control surface will be reduced, and it will not be able to maintain a smaller bank angle, and it will not be able to touch the ground.
However, if the aircraft does not slow down and needs to maintain sufficient control surface effect to offset the rolling moment of the aircraft, the aircraft speed must be kept at an extremely exaggerated level, such as twice the normal approach speed. But this speed is too exaggerated, and even a 3,600-meter runway is not enough.
Boeing 777 is not Boeing 737. Huge mass means huge inertia. You know, at the end of runway 35 is an apron where many flights are parked and waiting because of excessive wind volume. If they rush over, it won't be the people on this plane who will die.
If things go wrong, this could lead to the most fatal accident in the history of world civil aviation. No matter who you are, no one wants this to happen to them.
Although if you die, you won’t care about anything else.
But neither David nor Schneider wants to be known as the biggest butcher in the history of civil aviation, as that would be a disgrace for all eternity.
But now, the plane couldn't slow down, and it couldn't not slow down either. For a moment, it was in a dead end again.
To be honest, neither Schneider nor David could understand the current situation. Their cognition and level had no room for development in the current situation. Therefore, they could only follow Xu Cang's thinking, but they obviously could not keep up with Xu Cang's pace.
So, they are kind of giving up thinking now.
"Do we still have a chance to survive?" David asked.
Sure enough, in the end, all problems still need to be thrown to Xu Cang to solve.
Xu Cang looked neither happy nor sad: "Yes, we only lack a differential horizontal tail."
"Differential horizontal tail?" Schneider used to fly fighter jets, so he was more sensitive to this term. "But the 777's horizontal tail is linked. Only some fighter jets have differential horizontal tails."
The Boeing 777 or almost all civil airliners have linked horizontal tails, which means that the travel changes of the horizontal tails on the left and right sides are consistent, and they can only move up or down together.
However, if it is a differential horizontal tail, then one side of the horizontal tail can be moved up and the other side of the horizontal tail can be moved down.
This function basically only appears on fighter jets that have extremely high requirements for maneuverability.
"Xu Cang, I've flown an F-15 before. That plane has a differential horizontal tail, but it can't be controlled manually. It's all automated." Schneider was shocked and scared. He felt that his thinking was simply on a different dimension from Xu Cang's. He didn't dare to rudely blame Xu Cang. Just the fact that Xu Cang just switched the rudder and elevator was beyond his reach. He had no right to blame Xu Cang at all. He could only rely on his own experience to persuade him.
Xu Cang moved his mouth slightly and said a string of words, which was the landing method he would complete in a moment.
However, these words sounded like a fairy tale to Schneider and David, they were simply unheard of.
"Xu Cang, listen to me, you can't land like this. Even with the help of the flight control computer, it can't complete this complex operation. The human brain is absolutely not capable of it." Schneider said anxiously: "Believe me, Xu Cang!"
"You can use the flight control computer, but you can't understand it." Xu Cang's voice seemed to be devoid of human emotion: "Just like you can see me now, but you can't understand me."
At this moment, Xu Cang only felt that he had entered an unprecedented state, which was more perfect than the state he had at Yulong Airport.
He just felt that he was perfect and flawless, and had transcended a state that could be described and recognized.
This is him in his prime!
His unattainable new peak!
Whatever he sees and thinks, he can do!
At this moment, Xu Cang was so confident!
He is God!