Chapter 198 Speed ​​of Life and Death

Last week there was a lack of assistance. Bolton was the only one operating the cockpit the entire time. He had to observe the manual, control the aircraft, and calculate the route. As a result, the flight was particularly poor in the second half of the flight and it crashed very quickly.

In this round, thanks to the addition of Gu Ji, the aircraft maintained the best lift-to-drag ratio early on.

At this moment, the Boeing-7M8 is like a large glider. It can glide at a constant speed within a certain period of time just by relying on speed, wind direction, ailerons, APU and other parameters and equipment.

"I can't believe, Mr. Yasen, that you can still maintain such excellent computing skills at your age."

Bolton turned his head and looked at Gu Ji, who was many years older than him, with a bit of surprise. He even treated Gu Ji with a lot of respect, but when he heard "11" minutes, his pupils dimmed significantly.

"In 11 minutes, FL200, a 'glider' weighing 60 to 70 tons, can it really make an emergency landing safely..."

"Young man, since I can surprise you, why can't we create miracles together?"

Gu Ji looked seriously into Bolton's eyes.

He knew that the young co-pilot was skilled, but because he was young and inexperienced, he was easily flustered and nervous when things happened. This was also the real gap between the co-pilot and the captain.

Although he was also panicked, after all, he had experienced so many crisis levels and knew the importance of morale.

The more critical this situation is, the more Gu Ji needs to stabilize the situation.

Only in this way can one become an excellent SWAT commander.

Perhaps it was his calm voice and eyes full of experience and age that gave Bolton confidence.

"You are right, Mr. Yasen, let us work together to rescue the 107 passengers on AM649. Now, all instructions are carried out according to the manual, and you will make a verbal announcement. If there is an emergency..."

At the end of the sentence, Bolton looked at Gu Ji seriously and seemed to be explaining the aftermath, "Take over control immediately!"

"Understood! FL200, use APU bleed air to restore cabin pressurization."

"The APU is on! Oh God, thank you it still works."

FL200 refers to an altitude of 20,000 feet. The conversion altitude of VMO/MMO is about 6,000 meters. The APU is an auxiliary power unit located at the rear of the fuselage tail. It has its own independent electric starter and is powered by a separate battery.

There are independent additional gearboxes, lubrication systems, cooling systems and fire protection devices. The fuel comes from the overall fuel system on the aircraft.

At this time, the sound of the code being pressed came from outside the cab door, and the hatch was opened.

Gu Ji turned back sharply.

I thought it was a terrorist, but I didn't expect it to be Betty, the flight attendant.

Her head was hit, her hair was disheveled, her forehead was injured and blood flowed out, and the buttons of her dark blue uniform were broken open, revealing two proud breasts inside.

Perhaps frightened by Gu Ji's scary eyes, Betty tilted her head back half a step.

"Oh my God, I was shocked. How is the situation now?"

"It's very pessimistic, Betty, we have encountered a double engine failure. Although I hate to say this, please tell the passengers in the cabin to prepare for an emergency landing!"

"God……"

Betty exclaimed, her eyes filled with fear. As a flight attendant, she certainly knew how low the success rate of an emergency landing with double-engine failure was.

When the other party was about to leave, Gu Ji suddenly remembered a question and hurriedly called her.

"Purser, you have to arrange the passengers evenly in the economy class seats to prevent the tail of the plane from being heavy and the front being light."

"I understand, leave the cabin issues to me!"

After all, Betty was a veteran flight attendant, and she quickly adjusted back from her panic.

The hatch was closed, and Gu Ji and Bolton were left in the cab.

Bolton gripped the joystick.

"time."

"There are 8 minutes left. We are now in the middle of the Mexican Plateau. It is an intermountain plateau basin zone with a predominantly grassland climate. The average altitude is 2,000 meters. The eastern part is blocked by the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains. The terrain is mountainous and forested, and the terrain is uneven, so we cannot go west.

, if you want to find a way to find a gentle grassland, it is best to use a road."

Gu Ji quickly browsed the terrain map.

At this height, through the cockpit windshield, you can already see the ground, a vast green plateau with slightly undulating terrain. The entire land is covered with green trees, like a thick carpet, under the blue sky.

Against the backdrop, it looks particularly fresh.

But this "beautiful scenery" is full of dangers for the two of them.

When an aircraft makes an emergency landing in a mountainous area, these trees are equivalent to throwing nails on the highway, which will instantly destroy the landing attitude and split the fuselage into pieces.

"Mr. Yasen, have you seen the grassland?"

"No."

"time."

"5 minutes."

"I seem to see a river..."

Following the direction of Bolton's gaze, Gu Ji saw a winding brown reflective ribbon on the west side of the fuselage. Yes, this was a river in the mountains and forests.

"Bolton, you want to ditch?"

"This is the last resort."

Bolton's tone was very serious.

Ditching on water sounds feasible, but in practice it is not easy.

There is a saying in civil aviation that "it's better to shoot on the mountain than on the water." This shows the difficulty of ditching on water. There are many planes trying to land on water around the world, but there is only one case where it is best to complete it safely.

The person who accomplished this feat of forced landing on water was the famous Captain Sally.

You must know that the Hudson River where Captain Sully made an emergency landing is the main waterway in New York State in the United States. Commercial ships can pass through it and the water area is wide. Moreover, it was winter when Captain Sully made an emergency landing, and the river flow was at its lowest and the water flow was gentle.

At the moment, they have no idea about this strange river, its width, depth, height difference, and whether the current is fast or not.

Just when Gu Ji was about to speak to dissuade him.

Bolton took out his mobile phone from his pocket and turned on the screen. The screen saver was a photo of him and a young girl. He caressed the girl's face with his eyes full of regret, "Mr. Yassen, let's take a gamble and follow my plan."

Come on, stay parallel to the river, descend slowly, and keep it level, okay?"

"Wait! Bolton, I found the clearing!"

Just when he made up his mind to die, Gu Ji suddenly shouted loudly.

Bolton raised his head and saw that not far east of the river, there was an oval-shaped grassland exposed in the middle of the mountain forest. Judging from the proportion, it was enough for them to complete the emergency landing.

For a moment, hope and excitement rekindled in his pupils, "Fake! That's a damn grassland! Maybe we can be saved!"

"Yes! Bolton, we should go all out!"

"You are right, Mr. Yassen, time!"

"2 minutes! APU starts! Lower the flap handle to position 5!"

Gu Ji looked through the manual to find the emergency landing procedure for double engine failure, and then pushed the flap handle.

Bolton put the screen saver in front of him, kissed it, put it back in his pocket, and then quickly followed the instructions he spoke to operate the APU, "VAPP OK."

VAPP is the aircraft's approach correction speed and is also one of the most important indicator parameters for aircraft landing. It changes with changes in the weight of the aircraft, landing configuration, head wind, whether automatic thrust is on, whether there is ice, and downdrafts.

If the VAPP is too fast, the plane will land hard, which is equivalent to a big fat man falling to the ground hard.

"183KT!"

Gu Ji took a look at the current speed.

The unit of aviation speed is knots, which is approximately equal to 338 kilometers per hour.

Bolton shook his head grimly.

"This speed is too fast. The model of AM649 is Boeing-7M8, with an empty weight of 41.4 tons. Including 70% of the cabin, cargo and fuel weight, it should be about 60 tons. The corresponding VAPP for forced landing should be 163KT."

"90 seconds! Wind direction! It's northwest wind now, the wind speed is 9.7 meters/second. We can go against the wind and dump fuel!"

"Good idea! Mr. Yassen! Fuel leak!"

"Fuel leak!"

As Bolton raised his hand to press the fuel valve, he heard two "beep" sounds, and the fuel in the cabin instantly turned into two air waves and flew out from both sides of the wing.

"60 seconds! 171KT! Spoiler alert!"

Boom buzz——!

As Bolton manipulated the ailerons to turn to fly against the wind, the sound in the cabin became louder and the fuselage continued to shake. Gu Ji could only shout loudly into the flight headphones to prevent Bolton from hearing wrongly.

At this moment, he could clearly see the trees on both sides of the ground through the windshield.

The rapid speed of the fuselage and the blurred afterimage of the treetops made his adrenaline, heartbeat, and blood pressure all rise, which soon caused a vibrating warning on his wrist watch.

As we all know, this is equivalent to driving a car.

When your reference object is the side window, you will feel fast, but if you focus on the front, you will feel very slow.

The same is true for airplanes. When flying at high altitude, you may only be able to read the speed through the instrument. But when flying close to the ground, the all-round sensory stimulation brought by the surrounding tree trunks, sounds, and fuselage shaking is quite impactful!
To be continued...