Chapter 71 Then I’ll fly!
Xu Cang, who was originally quite relaxed, had just sat down when he heard Jin Fuli's words, and his face froze. If it was an ordinary simulator match, Xu Cang really didn't feel anything, but if it involved someone else's proficiency check, it would have a different meaning. And Jin Fuli said that the person on the right seat was doing his second proficiency check. If he failed, except for someone like Xu Cang who had completely given up, no one would be able to bear the pressure.
Now Xu Cang felt some extra pressure on his shoulders, even though according to what Jin Fuli said, he was only responsible for doing some odd jobs such as reading checklists.
Jin Fuli saw Xu Cang's increasingly stern face, and he couldn't help but feel proud. He had good eyesight and could tell at once that Xu Cang was a soft-hearted guy. If he took advantage of him, his bottom would be known thoroughly.
"There's not much time left, so let's start with the cruise. I'll get the plane into the air, and you prepare the panel. The destination is still Jianchuan Airport." Jin Fuli said, "Hurry up, don't think about dawdling. If you haven't landed by the time, you'll also be considered unqualified."
The student on the right seat was startled, and the action of setting the panel was a little faster. I don't know if it was due to time pressure, but Xu Cang clearly saw that there were problems with the positions of several switches on the left seat.
Fortunately, the student on the right seat discovered the wrong switch during a second quick check after preparing everything, which made Xu Cang breathe a sigh of relief.
At this point, Xu Cang was really speechless. At such a sensitive time, why let a Boeing pilot come up to cooperate? Isn't that just putting pressure on him out of thin air?
After waiting for less than five minutes, the co-pilot on the right seat had prepared everything and reported to Jin Fuli.
Jin Fuli hummed, glanced at Xu Cang's profile, and said, "Then I'll thaw, let's start!"
As Jin Fuli pressed the defrost button, the simulator resumed operation, and the simulated sound of the engine running instantly filled the eardrums.
Xu Cang, who had been limited to a certain scope of work by Jin Fuli before he sat down, was watching his nose with his eyes and his heart with his nose, as if everything had nothing to do with him. He actually expected this, and he read the checklist while the co-pilot on the right seat landed safely, and the inspection passed, and everyone was happy.
But when Xu Cang was still picturing the happy ending in his mind, he suddenly felt the surroundings darken. Before he could figure out the situation, a series of repeated homophonic warnings rang in his ears.
"CRC warning?" Xu Cang was stunned and quickly scanned the panel. He saw that many display devices had been turned off, and even some of the lit switches indicating the aircraft status seemed a little dim.
Soon, the main warning light came on, and Xu Cang instinctively wanted to call up the system display page, which could show which system had a problem.
However, the moment he raised his right hand, he stopped immediately. It seemed that he was only responsible for reading the checklist and should not interfere with the troubleshooting of the right seat.
It's not that Xu Cang is cold-blooded, but this behavior may cause Jin Fuli's dissatisfaction, which will harm the student on the right seat. Let's wait and see what happens. It's possible that the student on the right seat can handle it himself!
Fortunately, the student on the right seat had the same idea as Xu Cang, and also wanted to call up the system display page. However, the moment he reached out, the GEN FAULT light and PACK FAULT light came on at the same time. Then, a continuous sound like a cavalry bugle came into his ears, and the main warning light that had just been reset began to flash again, and the ECAM popped up a red warning of AUTO FLT AP OFF.
“Autopilot disengaged!”
Xu Cang didn't even need to look at the ECAM, just by listening to the noise he knew it was the ECAM disengaging. However, the disengagement of the automatic driving itself is not terrible, the problem is what it means.
Perhaps the cadet on the right seat was not very senior, and two consecutive warnings made him a little flustered. He temporarily gave up calling up the system display page, and first prepared to turn off the master warning light and the CLR button on the ECAM control panel again to clear the ECAM status.
However, when he was taking action, the plane began to lower its head spontaneously. The student had been completely distracted by the first two warnings and had no time to pay attention to the changes in the plane's status. To be more precise, it was not that he didn't pay attention, but that he didn't notice it at all.
This is a huge difference between experienced pilots and rookie pilots. There is a world of difference in attention allocation.
The moment Xu Cang noticed the plane was lowering its head, his eyes were drawn to the engine data display. At this moment, the N1 speed of the plane was rapidly decreasing, and at the same time, the N2 speed was not immune.
This is not a good sign, as not one, but both engines are behaving this way.
"Both engines are out of service?" Xu Cang's heart skipped a beat, and he looked at the co-pilot on the right seat in confusion. The two-engine shutdown project should be prepared for pilots above the senior co-pilot level. But from the performance just now, it seems that the technical level of the co-pilot on the right seat should not be very high.
Is Airbus' proficiency check that tough? A low-level co-pilot's proficiency check requires flying with both engines shut down, which seems to be much more than Boeing's proficiency check.
As if to confirm Xu Cang's idea, after the flight management and guidance system detects engine failure, the system automatically calls up the performance page of the current flight phase, and this process does not require the pilot to operate. However, in some special cases, this automatic change will not occur, such as before reaching the rerouting point during takeoff or when there is no EOSID program in the flight plan.
At the same time, the option of clearing engine failure appears at the place corresponding to the first button on the right, and the prompt of single-engine long-range cruise appears on the second button on the left. It is just the single-engine drifting descent speed calculated by the flight computer based on the aircraft performance for the pilot's reference.
However, this single-engine long-range cruise is not unchangeable. On the climb, cruise and descent performance pages, the pilot can manually enter the cost index to override the computer-generated "EO LRC".
Of course, if the pilot does not like to use the relevant information, he can press the right button. In this way, all information related to engine failure can be cleared, and the EO information will be suppressed afterwards, and the previous flight plan will be restored.
However, at a special stage, such as an engine failure before takeoff to the rerouting point, the computer will generate a temporary flight plan for the pilot to refer to. Some companies with conditions will load the single-engine program of the relevant airport into the computer, so that once a single-engine failure occurs during the takeoff phase, the single-engine program will pop up automatically. However, at this time, most companies are not so kind, and most rely on pilots to manually input during preparation.
Logically speaking, with the aircraft's prompts at this point, the co-pilot on the right seat should be able to understand the current situation, right? But what surprised Xu Cang was that the student on the right seat stared at the pop-up engine failure information page and didn't know what to do.
In the minds of many pilots, the degree of automation of Airbus aircraft is indeed higher than that of Boeing aircraft, and even a considerable number of Boeing pilots agree with this.
Among all the qualities that Airbus pilots who play the role of monitors possess, analyzing abnormal information generated by the aircraft is an important technical quality. However, the student in the right seat did not seem to have such ability. At first, Xu Cang thought he was a low-level co-pilot, perhaps the lowest level among low-level co-pilots, such as a trainee.
For a civil aviation pilot, the first two times of proficiency check are the easiest to fail, because there is really no experience at all and all kinds of low-level mistakes may occur. After that, as the number of times increases, the accumulated experience will start to play a role.
Fortunately, although the student on the right seat was a little slow to react, he was not blind after all. If he still couldn't figure out the situation with so many prompts, he would have failed in the initial modification stage.
The dimming of cockpit lights and the disengagement of autopilot were just superficial phenomena; the fundamental problem was the failure of the two engines.
"Both engines have stalled!" As if he had discovered some huge secret, the student sitting on the right pointed at the engine data and excitedly showed off to Xu Cang.
Xu Cang's mouth twitched . This was really a huge discovery. However, Xu Cang did not show any disgust. All pilots had to go through this stage. Instead, he patiently pointed at the ECAM and said, "Just follow it."
To be honest, the ECAM, or Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitor, on Airbus is really easy to use. At least it is much more convenient than letting Boeing pilots make their own judgments and look up manuals themselves.
ECAM continuously monitors the aircraft systems, such as engine, hydraulic, air conditioning, power, APU, etc. There are 13 pages in total, each corresponding to a system. As long as there is a problem with that system, the warning and memo function of ECAM will pop up the faulty system, and the pilot can complete the corresponding disposal content according to the prompt.
However, just when the student on the right seat wanted to take action, the aircraft began to lower its head continuously due to lack of power support. Xu Cang was also convinced. He really only cared about the head and not the butt. He only cared about the ECAM and ignored the aircraft status?
Xu Cang waited for a while. No matter what, the stability of the Airbus aircraft was still good. Even if both engines stalled and nothing was done, it would not crash immediately. But he couldn't just leave it alone.
After waiting for a while, Xu Cang discovered that the guy on his right was really stubborn. He had no idea how to distribute his attention. His eyes were almost fixed on the SD (system display ).
Out of kindness, Xu Cang, who was not in a position to take direct action, coughed twice fiercely, hoping to attract the attention of the right seat. However, Xu Cang's coughing did not alert the right seat, but was caught by Jin Fuli behind him.
Jin Fuli did not say anything, but stretched out his foot and kicked the back of Xu Cang's chair. The meaning of this action was self-evident, so Xu Cang did not dare to remind him again.
However, Xu Cang originally thought that Jin Fuli's kick would make quite a noise, so it should have some effect. However, the student on the right just raised his head and looked at Xu Cang in confusion before looking away.
To be honest, a simulator is just a simulator after all, and it can't completely reproduce the real fault situation. At least when both engines are turned off, the aircraft's nose-down speed is slower than the real one. Such a small amplitude is easy to be ignored by the body if the attention is not distributed.
However, no matter how slow it is, we can't just leave it alone.
If this guy gets stubborn, his field of vision will become narrow. He can clearly see the aircraft's attitude indicator by just glancing to the right, but the guy on the right seat is like a demon, only focusing on the ECAM warnings and memo displays and completely ignoring the outside world.
The two Airbus trainees standing at the back were so anxious that they wanted to slap the trainee on the right seat. But no matter how anxious they were, they dared not act. If they did, Jin Fuli would probably slap them first.
From the kick Jin Fuli gave Xu Cang just now, it was clear that his attitude was not to allow Xu Cang to provide help. But the plane was flying like this, and he was just staring at the ECAM without paying any attention to the status. The only result was that it would not pass. Xu Cang couldn't just sit there and do nothing, right?
"do my best!"
This student has gone crazy. It is impossible to expect him to discover the problem on his own. Continuing will lead to a dead end anyway, so it is better to take action himself. If Jin Fuli thinks that he interfered too much and caused the death of the student on his right, then it is only his own fault.
Xu Cang thought for a moment, cleared his throat, patted the student on the right seat who was looking down, and said calmly under the student's puzzled gaze: "You handle the ECAM, and I'll take over the controls."
As soon as these words were spoken, Jin Fuli immediately raised his foot, but after thinking about it, he finally put it down.
Compared to the unwarranted reminder just now, this time Xu Cang had a legitimate reason to intervene. In the division of labor in the cockpit during the special situation phase, there would have been a pilot to deal with the failure and a pilot to operate the aircraft. Xu Cang had found a legitimate reason to intervene.
Jin Fuli was still reasonable and did not force Xu Cang to refuse to take over the operation.
Originally, Xu Cang thought that his action of taking over the control should have some warning effect on the student on the right, but the student on the right just said "hmm" and didn't even raise his head, which really made Xu Cang laugh.
In other words, his temper has changed a lot after his rebirth. Based on his previous temper, he would have taken action if he encountered such an unreasonable student. It was really too outrageous.
However, Xu Cang still suppressed his anger, smoothly grasped the side stick with his left hand, and began to adjust the aircraft's attitude.
Xu Cang did not mindlessly level the plane. With both engines shut down, leveling the plane is a rather low-level maneuver. Instead, Xu Cang glanced at the plane's gross weight on the performance page and reduced the attitude to a downward pitch of 1.5 degrees.
The Airbus trainees standing behind were surprised that Xu Cang, a Boeing pilot, could control the Airbus plane so easily, because the control methods of Airbus and Boeing are completely different. For example, in a turn, in the control of Boeing pilots, they need to maintain the slope after the pressure plate forms a slope, otherwise the aircraft will easily deviate from the slope. However, after the Airbus pilot forms the required slope through the side stick, the aircraft will automatically maintain this slope until a new instruction is generated.
It’s not that the Airbus’s control method is complicated, but Boeing pilots always feel uncomfortable when they fly an Airbus for the first time. However, Xu Cang seems to have no such obstacles. He flies as smoothly as if he has flown Airbus before.
For Xu Cang, whether it was an Airbus or a Boeing, the control was an extension of his body. Therefore, he would not have any lag in control, but it was this unparalleled smooth feeling that surprised the Airbus trainees behind him.
If Xu Cang realized that a simple lever control could attract other people's attention, he might consider pretending that the control was rough.
However, unlike the students who were surprised next to him, Jin Fuli, as an Airbus veteran, saw more than just Xu Cang's control. In other words, compared with Xu Cang's quick adaptability to Airbus's control methods, Jin Fuli was more shocked by Xu Cang's choice of posture for the dual-engine shut-down aircraft.
The pitch attitude is minus 1.5 degrees. Many laymen, or to be more precise, some inexperienced Airbus pilots cannot immediately react to the meaning of this attitude.
Why is it 1.5 degrees down? Not one degree, not two degrees, but the middle value?
What's more, what's even more terrible is that Xu Cang's behavior of glancing at the total weight of the aircraft before forming this pitch posture was clearly seen by Jin Fuli. This action means that Xu Cang's choice of the aircraft posture was not blind, but had a basis.
Why did Jin Fuli feel surprised by the 1.5-degree pitch attitude? Because this pitch attitude represents the best pitch attitude for re-igniting the aircraft with a full weight of 13,000 pounds.
In the case of a dual-engine shutdown, the first thing to do is to maintain the aircraft status. However, this does not involve reconnecting the power or checking the ECAM, but rather finding a way to restart at least one engine.
However, the aircraft cannot be started in any state. The pilot needs to create a relatively suitable starting environment for the engine, such as a suitable speed and a suitable altitude. The optimal pitch for re-ignition will be generated according to the different gross weights of the aircraft.
Many Airbus pilots probably don’t know the optimal pitch corresponding to the aircraft’s weight, but Xu Cang knows it. He does it instinctively without even looking up the manual.
As the saying goes, experts see the doorway, while laymen see the excitement. This move alone is enough to expose Xu Cang's true colors!
"Boy, you still say you can't fly an Airbus?" Jin Fuli sneered.
However, in Xu Cang's case, he didn't realize that his instinctive manipulation had exposed his true colors. There was no way, he habitually planned for the future, and every manipulation he made had a reason, and this concept had penetrated into his bones and was difficult to suppress.
Xu Cang didn't know that he had been exposed, and was secretly happy that Jin Fuli did not stop him from being manipulated, so he also announced MAYDAY.
"MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! The Blue Sky training aircraft has both engines out of service. Please deviate from the route, descend to altitude, and restart the engines." Xu Cang announced: "If possible, please apply to fly directly to Jianchuan."
To restart the engine, you generally have to maintain a relatively high speed. The only solution now is to exchange altitude for speed. In this case, it is best not to fly along the route to avoid aircraft conflicts.
Jin Fuli did not make things difficult for us and responded quickly: "Blue Sky training aircraft, you can fly directly over Jianchuan, control the altitude by yourself, and report the approach!"
"Fly directly over Jianchuan, control the altitude yourself, and report the approach." After saying that, Xu Cang began to turn according to the instructions of Jianchuan's local VOR. During this period, there was no problem in controlling the aircraft, which further strengthened Jin Fuli's idea that Xu Cang could fly an Airbus.
After turning to Jianchuan, the plane deviated from the planned route. Now it was time to figure out how to restart the engine. However, the student on the right seat who had been paying attention to the ECAM suddenly exclaimed, "Where's the ECAM display?"
"Hmm?" Xu Cang, who was still turning, looked down and immediately saw that the lower SD had gone out for some reason: "What happened? What did you press?"
After fully understanding the level of the student on the right seat, Xu Cang had to wonder if this guy had messed up the ECAM system. But the student on the right seat shook his head like a rattle and immediately denied it: "No, I didn't mess with anything."
At this time, Jin Fuli's joking voice sounded: "Why, you can't fly without ECAM?"
As soon as this was said, everyone knew that it was Jin Fuli who turned off the ECAM display. Now the student on the right seat was cleared of suspicion, but the question was what to do without the ECAM?
"Captain Jin, without ECAM, I..." Obviously this situation was beyond the ability of the trainee. He turned his head blankly and looked at Jin Fuli, his face full of innocence.
Xu Cang immediately said: "Check the quick checklist."
After this reminder, the student on the right seat's eyes lit up, and he was about to get the manual, but was suddenly stopped by Jin Fuli: "Don't take it! I want to see if I can't fly without the manual. I don't care what method you use, the only requirement is to fly the plane down for me. If you can't fly it down, go back to the fleet and wait to be grounded!"
Jin Fuli spoke in an extremely harsh tone. He had been accumulating power over the Airbus pilots for a long time, and when he shouted at this moment, the simulated cabin was in complete silence, and the student sitting on the right was about to cry.
Without ECAM reference and quick checklist for reference, how can the fault be handled and how can the plane be flown down?
To be honest, Jin Fuli's behavior was a little unkind. How could he fly like that? Isn't this just making things difficult for me? But I am the fish on the chopping board, and there is nothing I can do about some things.
At this time, the student sitting on the right was almost in despair. He stayed in his seat and murmured, "Captain Jin, I really can't fly anymore."
However, just as the student on the right finished speaking, Xu Cang suddenly shouted, "Okay! Let's do it!"
Xu Cang finally understood that this was not a test for the student on the right, but a test for him! Although from Xu Cang's own perspective, this Airbus student who was caught in the crossfire was not innocent either, and his performance in troubleshooting could be described as terrible.
However, if Jin Fuli really wanted to find out his true colors, then he should let him see what his true colors were, so that he wouldn't have to cover them up in the future! Xu Cang finally understood that Jin Fuli was determined to find out his true colors, and he couldn't hide it forever, so he should show what he had in the most upright manner.
He also didn't believe that the company would do anything to him just because he was a Boeing pilot and could fly Airbus.
The Airbus trainees around him all looked at Xu Cang in surprise, and the trainee on the right seat was even more anxious and frightened: "I can't land this plane."
"Shut up!" Xu Cang's anger exploded in an instant. If he had behaved a little better, he would not have given Jin Fuli so many opportunities to set traps for him. Now he acted like a complete defeatist. Xu Cang hated people who surrendered without a fight the most.
No one expected Xu Cang to get so angry, including Jin Fuli, who could not help but exclaim: "What a bad temper."
However, Xu Cang's next words directly detonated the entire simulated cabin.
"You don't need to fly this plane!" Xu Cang narrowed his eyes: "You can't land, right? I don't need you, so I'll land it!"
