Emergency Takeoff in Low Weather Conditions

In the early winter of 1995, in the afternoon, an airport stood alone in the hills on the border of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.

The sea breeze blowing from the East China Sea penetrated more than 30 kilometers into the interior and collided with the cold air moving southward from Siberia, creating convective weather.

Amidst the towering mountains, a runway stretches north to south, like a reclining dragon traversing a narrow valley.

The airport was shrouded in a thick, cotton-like rain, and the entire outer area was shrouded in a hazy mist when viewed from under the eaves of the flight control room.

Every now and then a gust of cold wind would blow by, its bone-chilling cold making one's nerves tense.

Visibility is less than one kilometer, with a level 5 crosswind at ground level and cloud cover.

Twenty-four-year-old Air Force Lieutenant Li Lu stood outside the flight duty room, stretching his hand out over the eaves. Raindrops pounded on his palms, splashing onto his face, the water cool and refreshing, reflecting his deep sorrow.

The poor weather conditions made his chances of participating in this large-scale live-fire military exercise as slim as the fog on the distant mountainside.

Li Lu threw the cigarette butt on the ground, stomped it with his camouflage rubber boots, and turned to walk into the flight duty room.

The weather was fine in the morning, but after Deputy Squadron Leader Chen Hai led two groups of four J-7E fighters to carry out an exercise, the weather conditions suddenly turned bad.

The four J-7E fighters that Chen Hai brought up were the last batch of main combat aircraft of the 7th Regiment.

In the operational plan, Chen Hai was to carry out the first wave of missions, and after returning to base, he would conduct field resupply for the fighter jets. Then, Li Lu, the acting squadron leader of the sixth squadron, would lead the team to carry out the second wave of missions.

This is to test the troops' ability to conduct continuous combat operations.

Given the current weather conditions, Chen Hai's batch of fighter jets will likely have to make an emergency landing at another airfield.

A second wave of missions is out of the question.

Li Lu murmured, "Brother Hai, my senior brother, I hope you can return safely to the battlefield so I can carry out the second wave of missions as planned..."

"Ring ring ring..."

The telephone in the flight control room suddenly rang, startling Li Lu so much that his hair stood on end.

He lunged forward, grabbed the microphone, and shouted, "This is Li Lu!"

"You're smoking again, aren't you?" Xu Hailiang, the chief of staff of the 7th Air Regiment, shouted so loudly that Li Lu's eardrums were ringing.

Li Lu's eyes widened, and he subconsciously looked left and right, but there was no one there.

He yelled, "No, Chief of Staff! I didn't! Which bastard is spewing shit and making false accusations!"

"Stop spouting nonsense and framing innocent people! I saw it!" Xu Hailiang scolded.

Li Lu subconsciously looked towards the control tower, thinking to himself, "I don't believe you for a second. Do you really think your eyes are radar?"

"Let me tell you, kid, you're the only one left who can fly in low-weather conditions. You better stay in the flight control room and wait for your turn!" Xu Hailiang said in a deep voice.

Li Lu asked instinctively, "Can we fly in this weather?"

Xu Hailiang roared, "Don't even mention wind and rain, even if the God of Thunder and the Goddess of Lightning are getting a divorce, the moment the order comes, you'd better step up for me!"

Li Lu shouted, "Yes! I'll make sure those Americans don't leave alive!"

The phone went dead.

Li Lu let out a heavy breath, sweeping away his negative emotions.

As a regimental chief of staff who has flown thousands of hours, Xu Hailiang remains calm and composed in the face of major events, and he has a firm grasp on large-scale military exercise missions.

Suddenly, a continuous roaring sound came from outside.

Li Lu's expression immediately froze, his ears twitched, and he tilted his head slightly to listen.

It was the sound of an aircraft engine I had never heard before, rapidly approaching from afar.

He ran out of the flight control room and looked up at the sky at the end of the runway.

A huge, blurry outline of a fighter jet appeared in the heavy rain, wobbling and stumbling as it plunged onto the runway.

Based on the outline, Li Lu determined that it was the cutting-edge Su-27 heavy fighter jet.

Two batches were introduced a few years ago and equipped Li Lu's Third Division and the Second Division, which was thousands of miles away. Each batch was the size of a regiment.

For the People's Liberation Army Air Force, which still relies mainly on the first-generation jet fighter J-6 series, the Su-27 is an absolutely high-tech and advanced third-generation fighter.

The technological gap brought unfamiliarity; even pilots like Li Lu had never seen such a fighter jet in person.

This aircraft is too far out of reach for the People's Liberation Army Air Force.

The Su-27 looked just like a seagull emerging from a mud pit, approaching the runway at high speed with an exaggeratedly large side angle, and crashing into it in the blink of an eye. Two drag chutes were deployed, desperately pulling the fighter jet along.

Li Lu saw that the emergency response team had already been dispatched. Fire trucks, ambulances, and other emergency rescue vehicles, with their lights on and sirens blaring, sped along the parallel road toward the end of the runway, their sharp sounds piercing through the heavy rain.

This is an emergency landing.

Before Li Lu could even react, the phone rang again.

He lunged forward, grabbed the microphone, and shouted, "Flight Control Room!"

"A fighter jet from the Ninth Regiment made an emergency landing at our airfield due to mechanical failure, creating a gap in the defense of Airspace No. 3, Li Lu," Xu Hailiang said calmly.

"Here!" Li Lu straightened his back, his eyes blazing with a thirst for battle.

Xu Hailiang ordered, "You go up there and fill the gap in airspace number three!"

"yes!"

Li Lu hung up the phone, ran over, grabbed his flight helmet, rushed out, opened the door of the 212 Jeep, and climbed inside.

The driver started in second gear and floored the accelerator, speeding towards the aircraft on duty.

The maintenance crew has received orders to start the J-6 fighter jets using the ground power vehicle.

Currently, only the J-6 is capable of performing duty tasks.

"Captain Li! The plane is fine!"

The raindrops pattered loudly on the arched tarmac, said Wang Bicheng, the maintenance team leader and aircraft mechanic.

Li Lu fastened his flight helmet, raised his hand to salute the maintenance crew, grabbed the boarding ladder handrail, and quickly climbed into the cockpit.

He fastened his seatbelt, connected the radio and oxygen hose, revved the engine to check its operation, and then turned to give Wang Bicheng a thumbs-up.

Li Lu put on her white work gloves only after she finished doing all that.

As soon as Wang Bicheng stepped off the boarding stairs, two soldiers came up and removed them. The guide then signaled with flags that it was time to slide off.

Li Lu closed the canopy while revving the engine and sliding out.

After taxiing off the arched apron, heavy rain immediately covered the cockpit windows, and the view was all gray and hazy.

The rain became more frequent.

At this moment, Xu Hailiang and his staff on the flight control tower were on tenterhooks.

If there were any other option, Xu Hailiang would not have sent Li Lu.

This kid's flying style is too wild. I don't know where he learned those unorthodox methods, but they've got the regimental leaders on edge.

The group plans to let him reflect on his actions and practice his flying maneuvers before he returns to flight.

But currently, this kid is the only one left with the ability to fly in low-weather conditions, so there's no other choice.

Through his blurry vision, Xu Hailiang clearly saw Li Lu rev ​​the engine at the turn from the taxiway to the runway, perform a small drift, and the aircraft suddenly swung straight towards the runway.

Xu Hailiang's lips twitched involuntarily, and he held his breath.

Li Lu didn't stop; while maintaining speed, he reported, "Dongguai requests takeoff!"

"We can take off, but watch out for crosswinds!" Xu Hailiang said through gritted teeth.

"I understand!" Li Lu smiled slightly, drawing out the syllable.

He turned on the boost and pushed the throttle lever all the way down.

The two WP-6A jet engines roared, generating a total of 78.5 kN of power, propelling the fighter jet to accelerate and take off.

Li Lu activated night flight mode, and the instrument panel lit up.

When he reached a speed of 280 kilometers per hour, he pulled the lever to lift the wheel, and after feeling a lightness in his backside, he immediately pulled the wheel back.

Xu Hailiang held his breath once again.

J-6 No. 07 roared as it accelerated and climbed, making a sharp turn at the end of the runway, its nose pointing east.

Only then did Xu Hailiang's heart slowly settle down, and he let out a long sigh of relief.

Watching this kid take off and land is definitely a test of your heart.

"Dongguai, adjust frequency wave number 3, command from the control tower," Xu Hailiang called to Li Lu.

Li Lu replied, "Wave number 3, I understand the hole!"

He adjusted the communication frequency to wave number 3.

This is the air force command channel for this large-scale military exercise; all participating aircraft obey the commands of this station.

"Dongguai, radar detected. Adjust course to 70 degrees, altitude 5800 meters. Over." The command center called out.

Li Lu replied, "I understand the tunnel. Heading 70, altitude 5800."

He put on his oxygen mask and continued climbing while adjusting his course.

Without ground guidance, aircraft in the air can only determine their position by recognizing landmarks and reference points on the ground.

However, airspace number three is over the sea, with a vast expanse of white ocean below. Pilots would lose their way if they lost ground guidance.

Li Lu has been serving in the 7th Air Regiment for two years. With his exceptional memory, he has memorized all the terrain and landforms around the airfield, and he knows the situation in the No. 3 airspace like the back of his hand.

Without any notification from the command center, it indicates that there is currently no enemy activity in airspace No. 3.

Li Lu's task was to reach the No. 3 airspace as quickly as possible before any enemy activity occurred to conduct a combat patrol and fill the troop shortage there.

On a hilltop about ten kilometers north of the Donghai Station, there is a base under a circular radar dome, and below that is the control room.

Inside the radome, the air search radar, which should have been rotating at a constant speed, was now stopped, but it was clearly pointing eastward, sending out beam after beam of radar waves, scanning the eastern sky.

In the control room, radar operator Fang Dong, a second-phase soldier, stared intently at the screen.

Suddenly, a very faint signal flashed by.

Fang Dong's hair stood on end, and his eyes were fixed on that spot.

However, after a while, the faint signal that seemed to indicate an enemy presence did not reappear.

Judging from the strength of the reflected signal, it might be a large bird, but Fang Dong remained skeptical.

He noted it down: "Suspected enemy activity in airspace number three."

In the sky, Li Lu climbed through the thick cumulonimbus clouds and reached an altitude of 5800 meters, where the view suddenly opened up before him.

Looking around, the surrounding clouds were layered and towering, making the fighter jets seem to be flying among the mountains. The visibility was much better than that of the airspace below the cumulonimbus clouds, but the visibility was still obstructed by the clouds.

The J-6 had no radar, so Li Lu could only rely on his eyes to conduct visual searches.

"Dongguai reports, I have arrived at airspace number three, combat patrol from west to east, over." Li Lu reported to the command post.

The command center replied, "The tunnel can proceed as planned. Be careful not to cross the center line. Over."

"I understand, Dongguai!"

Li Lu scanned the area with his eyes like a radar, and as he turned southeast, he saw a tiny black shadow flash past through a gap in the clouds on his right.

What is that?