Great Power Long Sky

The atmosphere in the flight control tower was quite somber.

Xu Hailiang sat in the command position, looking out the window with his brows furrowed.

Li Lu strode in, and the operations staff officer next to the command post quickly stood up to give Li Lu his seat.

Li Lu said, "Commander, we can't just wait like this. I have an idea that we might be able to try."

Xu Hailiang said, "Speak."

Li Lu pointed to the sky and said, "I looked at the cloud map. The rainfall area is below 4,000 meters. The weather is very good above 4,000 meters."

"I think we should take advantage of the current weather and let the new pilots who do not yet have all-weather combat capabilities go up there for some training, while the veteran pilots can continue their training as planned."

"I spoke with Le Ning from the weather station, and he can find a time window to land and control the risks."

Xu Hailiang frowned and said, "Doing it this way is too risky. If the timing doesn't match, or if the weather changes during training, the plane will be in danger."

Li Lu said, "I inquired about the weather conditions at the Fumin airfield. Their weather conditions meet the requirements for an emergency landing. If all else fails, we can make an emergency landing at the Fumin airfield, leaving enough fuel. I think it's worth a try."

"Commander, things are different now. The troops have entered a state of war. We should try our best whenever we have the chance."

Xu Hailiang fell into deep thought.

In fact, the method Li Lu mentioned is not new. Many people would think of this in the face of the current weather conditions. However, there is a long-standing, ingrained mindset barrier between thinking of it and actually doing it.

It's as if everyone's thinking has been restricted by an invisible hand.

Are fighter jets incapable of flying in adverse weather conditions? Not necessarily. In fact, it can be said that fighter jets with all-weather combat capabilities are designed with the possibility of operating in adverse weather conditions in mind.

For example, the J-7E has a strong combat capability under low-weather conditions.

If an air situation arises, Xu Hailiang will not hesitate to order the on-duty fighter jets to take off, without a doubt. However, in training, Xu Hailiang has to consider flight safety issues.

Li Lu did not hold these fixed ideas. He always believed that there was no essential difference between training and combat. Only a very few extremely talented pilots could bring out the abilities that could not be achieved in training in combat.

How many pilots like that are there out of thousands?

Only a few dozen people.

Xu Hailiang and others, or rather most people now, subconsciously separate training and combat, treating them as two separate things.

Ultimately, the problem lies in the fact that training philosophies have failed to keep pace with the changes in modern warfare.

At this moment, Deputy Division Commander Feng Liang walked in.

The weather report was not ideal, and Feng Liang was even more anxious than Xu Hailiang. These two "Liangs" were the number one and number two commanders of the 7th Air Regiment's combat unit, and they were under the greatest pressure.

Xu Hailiang immediately reported Li Lu's idea to Feng Liang in detail, without missing a single word, and expressed his support.

Feng Liang stared at the weather report, deep in thought.

Li Lu stepped forward and asked, "Sir, I request to be the first to take off!"

Xue Shuang immediately stepped forward. "Sir, I am Comrade Li Lu's wingman. I request to be the first to take off with the lead plane!"

"Sir, the meteorological observatory has already started working on the forecast time window. Predicting the time window for this event shouldn't be a problem, and the risks are manageable," Li Lu added.

Without hesitation, Feng Liang immediately said, "Prepare for flight; I will personally command!"

"yes!"

Li Lu and Xue Shuang quickly left the flight control tower and got into the 212 jeep to head to the flight duty room.

The first thing to do is go to the toilet and empty your bowels and bladder.

If you need to urinate or defecate while flying in the sky, that's terrible; you'll have to poop in your pants.

Therefore, pilots' meals are very particular.

Similarly, pilots need to be in very good physical condition. If they eat something slightly spicy and get diarrhea, they will be grounded in no time.

Li Lu took a big dump and then came out of the toilet looking relaxed. Xue Shuang was already dressed.

"Is this your large size?" Xue Shuang asked.

Li Lu said, "Yes, all the inventory has been cleared out. Flying for four or five hours is no problem."

After saying that, Li Lu quickly got dressed.

Over there, Wang Bicheng, An Min, Zhao Hao, and seven other maintenance personnel were conducting pre-flight checks on J-7E aircraft number 037 and J-7E aircraft number 033.

Occasionally, a gust of wind would bring rain into the arched hangar, making everyone instinctively shrink their necks in the cold.

Before long, the cold weather will recede like a tide, and be replaced by the gradually warming summer.

Li Lu and Xue Shuang inspected the aircraft, confirming the fuel level and ammunition loading, and then boarded the aircraft, connected the power, and checked the flaps, following standard procedures.

At 15:35, both aircraft reported to the control tower that they were ready to taxi.

Feng Liang gave the order to slide out.

Li Lu gently pushed the throttle stick and slid out of the arched hangar. The canopy was immediately covered by a torrential downpour, reducing visibility to about 500 meters. According to current regulations, this was not in compliance with flight requirements.

However, we are now in a state of war, and we cannot act according to the requirements of peacetime.

Li Lu entered the taxiway and turned his head to see two JH-7s parked in the open-air parking position. The fuselage was covered by two tarpaulins—the JH-7s were too big, and there were no suitable tarpaulins, so two had to be pieced together.

Thinking of Wu Jinzhong, the stationmaster of Donghai Station, Li Lu felt a sense of helplessness.

Last time, he went to Wu Jinzhong and brought up the matter of building two arched parking sheds for the JH-7 fighter-bombers. Wu Jinzhong did not agree and insisted that the superior issue a document.

It's impossible for the higher authorities to allocate a special fund to repair a dedicated hangar for the two temporarily borrowed aircraft, and Wu Jinzhong is unwilling to pay for it, which makes the matter difficult.

No wonder everyone privately calls Wu Jinzhong "Old Wu the Stooge".

Li Lu temporarily put the matter out of his mind, took the rudder and taxied to the takeoff position on the runway, with Xue Shuang following behind him.

J-7E No. 037 stopped at the takeoff position, with its nose pointing north towards the runway.

Li Lu looked at the weather vane on the grass beside the runway, and saw it swaying back and forth, sometimes north and sometimes south.

This indicates that the wind direction is constantly changing.

"The wind direction has changed. Take off as instructed," Feng Liang reminded the two.

"I understand, Dong Sanguai."

"Dong San San received!"

If the wind direction suddenly changes during takeoff, and the fighter jet takes off with the wind, it is easy for it to stall or run off the runway.

This wait lasted for about ten minutes.

The tail of the weather vane is pointing steadily southeast, which means that the wind is currently blowing from the northwest.

"Dongsanguai, time to take off!" Feng Liang gave the order decisively.

"receive!"

Li Lu slowly pushed the throttle lever, and the J-7E No. 037 began to taxi. This time, he did not step on the brake to build up power, but instead adopted a long taxiing method for takeoff.

Taking off in low weather conditions requires extreme caution during takeoff and landing; a single mishap could lead to a major accident.

Li Lu is bold, but he doesn't like to act recklessly.

No one who flies a plane is timid.

When the ground speed was much higher than the takeoff requirements, Li Lu slowly pulled back the stick and lifted the nose of the aircraft. The fighter jet slowly left the runway. At this moment, Li Lu went all out and increased the angle of attack.

We had to do this because there were mountains two or three kilometers ahead, each five hundred meters high.

The unique feature of the Donghai Station is that the straight-line distance between the two ends of the runway and the surrounding mountains is only a few kilometers.

Only after Li Lu successfully broke through the clouds and climbed to over 4,000 meters to level off did Feng Liang order Xue Shuang to take off.

Feng Liang, Xu Hailiang, and others are well aware that what they are doing is breaking the traditional mindset of "flight safety first".

In a time when safety is the primary evaluation criterion, it remains to be seen whether doing so is a good thing or a bad thing.

But one thing is certain—doing this will definitely help improve the combat effectiveness of the troops.