Return to 2000: Captain of the Great Powers

Chapter 14 I Can't Fall Down!
Many pilots, or to be precise, many captains will wait for the aircraft to stabilize and contact the control before starting to make abnormal checklists.

It is wrong to say that it is wrong, but Xu Cang personally feels that it is inappropriate.A simple engine failure is not as urgent as a fire or severe engine damage. Doing the checklist early will not give the pilot any substantial help, and it will more satisfy the crew's impatience and anxiety.

Also, the time the aircraft stabilized and the control established communications should be between [-] feet and [-] feet.During this period of time, due to the inefficient climb performance of the aircraft, there will be a waiting period, which is not only enough for the pilot to communicate with the controller, but also allows some more time.With that much extra time, some pilots tend to go through the Engine Failure or Shutdown checklist.

However, the "Engine Failed or Shutdown" checklist is not a short checklist like "Engine Aborted Start" and is unlikely to be completed in a short period of time.Moreover, after that, the inspection of "Engine Air Start" or "Single Engine Landing" must be followed.

This also means that doing the checklist at this point in time is doomed to be interrupted.Because once over a thousand feet, the aircraft will start to speed up and retract the flaps, and then the problem of flying to the turning point and circling must be considered.

Since you know that there is no obvious benefit in rushing through the checklist, and you are bound to be interrupted, why not wait for the flaps of the plane to be retracted and most of the procedures to be completed, and then do the checklist with peace of mind?
It can only be said that the captain's behavior style is somewhat close to that of Xu Cang in later generations.

Although the plane climbed slowly, the altitude of [-] feet was not a long distance, and it was still within reach.After waiting for a while, the captain ordered the co-pilot: "speed up."

The co-pilot immediately adjusted the UP speed to 220 knots in the speed window.With the generation of the demand for speed increase, the aircraft guidance began to descend, in exchange for an increase in speed by reducing the descent rate.

At this time, the captain slightly adjusted the downstick force, and then switched on the autopilot.

It is possible to turn on the autopilot for a single engine, and it is even recommended in the manual, because it will free up the pilot to deal with the special situation itself.

However, in the case of a single engine, the autopilot is not responsible for the rudder control.In other words, even if the autopilot is turned on, the pilot's feet still have to be on the rudder pedals.

With the autopilot turned on, a lot of the captain's energy was released.He glanced at the airspeed indicator, then turned the distance ring knob on the navigation page, looked at the paper departure chart for a moment, and then typed a dot ML (Minlong) on ​​the FIX page of CDU.

Soon, an anchor point of ML appeared on the navigation DU about ten nautical miles away from the right three sides of the field.The captain pointed to this point: "After the flaps are retracted, apply to fly to this point to circle."

"Okay!" The co-pilot didn't ask any further questions, and looked at the airspeed indicator: "V2+15."

"Flap one." The captain scratched his head, and went to turn over the QRH. When the co-pilot was making the checklist, he had to check it out to avoid making mistakes.

With the speed of the aircraft, the flaps were retracted, the captain pressed the level change button, selected the maximum continuous thrust on the N1 limit page of the CDU, and the co-pilot applied to the tower to turn right and fly to the ML point to circle.

"You can fly ML, turn right and circle when you reach the point." At this time, the controller has come back and continued to ask: "Excuse me, do you know what caused the engine to stall?"

This is a fairly normal problem, but it made the captain and co-pilot look at each other, because they don't know what the reason is, or is it simply an engine failure?

Just when the cockpit fell into a moment of silence, another voice came from behind: "It should be a bird strike."

The co-pilot turned to Xu Cang subconsciously: "How do you know?"

"I seemed to hear a crashing sound when I was sliding." Xu Cang shrugged: "But I'm not sure. When the No. [-] engine was turned off just now, the vibration value was almost maintained at three. It’s the birds hitting the engine blades that cause the blades to deform and that’s what increases the vibration value.”

Although the vibration value three is still within the limit range, it is obviously high, because the normal engine operation should be below one.There should be no direct connection between the simple engine flameout and the increase in vibration value, so there is a high probability that it is still affected by foreign objects.

"Did the vibration value be three just now?" The co-pilot frowned.Now that the No. [-] engine has been turned off, the vibration value has naturally returned to zero.But just now he didn't pay attention to the vibration value.

The corner of the captain's mouth twitched a few times indiscriminately. He had just seen the vibration value of the No. [-] engine, but seeing that it hadn't exceeded the limit, he didn't connect it with the bird strike at all.

It is undeniable that Xu Cang's guess is very reasonable.In connection with the premise of the frequent occurrence of bird strikes at Jianchuan Airport some time ago, this guess seems to be much more believable.

The captain licked his dry lips: "That's it."

Anyway, it's just speculation, and they don't have to be responsible for it.After landing for a while, it can be checked whether the No. [-] engine has been struck by birds.

When the co-pilot returned to the control tower, the captain's thoughts suddenly caught a strange place.The following checklists or procedures are not a problem, everything still has to go to one path, that is, to fall.

The question is where to go?

Thinking of the ground wind reported by the tower when he took off just now, the captain felt guilty, and his face became gloomy involuntarily.

Xu Cang sat at the back and was thinking about the next procedure, but out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught sight of the captain's side face, and he could see the worried look.

All of a sudden, Xu Cang held his breath instinctively, and asked, "What expression do you have?"

At this time, the co-pilot and the captain who had just replied to the control tower looked at Xu Cang in unison, and the captain soon realized that Xu Cang was asking him.At this time, the plane was turning to ML, but nothing special happened.

The captain smiled wryly, and first said to the co-pilot: "Let's do the procedure after takeoff."

Immediately, he turned to Xu Cang, he didn't look down on Xu Cang, on the contrary, he regarded Xu Cang more important because of the reminder to V1 when taking off.Without hiding anything, he sighed and said, "Where do you think it should go?"

Xu Cang immediately realized the problem, and frowned: "Is there any problem returning to this field?"

"Yes!" The captain showed a hint of apology on his face: "I don't seem to be able to fall!"

(End of this chapter)