Great Power Long Sky

The airspace above 4,000 meters is a world apart from the clear skies below 4,000 meters.

After emerging from the clouds, Li Lu's first feeling was one of sudden enlightenment. After climbing to an altitude of 6,000 meters, he began to circle and fly, waiting for Xue Shuang to come and form a formation.

Out of caution, Feng Liang ordered the two aircraft to climb to 12,000 meters after they had completed their formation, and then began simulated air combat training with the two aircraft in formation.

Simulated air combat training refers to air combat training without actual targets, with two aircraft operating in formation, the lead aircraft flying according to an attack pattern and the wingman flying according to a cover pattern.

Li Lu and Xue Shuang immediately formed a team and began to climb.

Once you reach an altitude of 12,000 meters, looking out from the cockpit, the sky looks like an upside-down pot, connecting with the Earth of the same shape as far as the eye can see. This is completely different from the view from the ground, where "the Earth is flat and the sky is a dome".

Li and Lu conducted air combat training according to standard procedures. These basic air combat procedures were extremely simple for these two outstanding pilots.

Before their takeoff, Le Ning judged that there would be a brief window of opportunity when the rain stopped in two hours and thirty minutes, which would be a suitable time to land.

After completing the air combat training, Feng Liang finally decided to conduct free air combat training.

Li Lu and Xue Shuang transitioned from wingman to adversary, engaging in free combat in airspace above 6,000 meters.

Taking into account the impact of low- and mid-altitude weather, their air combat airspace layer must not be lower than six thousand meters.

Li Lu and Xue Shuang can finally play a proper match without any pressure.

Free air combat means that air tower controllers will no longer provide specific command and guidance to either side; the pilots will make all the decisions themselves.

After three rounds, Xue Shuang couldn't take it anymore and said over the radio, "Dong Sanguai, how come you always manage to get close to my side and back? I couldn't shake you off even after several of my special moves!"

Li Lu laughed heartily, "Dong San San, your flying maneuvers are too rigid, and the transitions are also problematic. You can't just follow the rules exactly; you need to be flexible and adaptable."

After he finished speaking, he didn't hear Xue Shuang's response for several seconds, and thought Xue Shuang was sulking.

In fact, after hearing Li Lu's words, Xue Shuang immediately responded, "Indeed, when I am doing evasive maneuvers, I always feel that it is not very smooth, and the transitions between actions are also a bit awkward."

Li Lu didn't receive the message. After waiting a while, he called Xue Shuang, "Dong San San, did you get a reply?"

At that moment, Xue Shuang received a call from Li Lu: "Dong San San received, want to play another round?"

Li Lu had no problem with that, and reminded him, "Let's have another match, and pay attention to the transition between offense and defense."

"clear!"

Li Lu accelerated and flew ahead of Xue Shuang, this time with Xue Shuang taking the offensive.

Xue Shuang carefully reviewed the attack sequence that Li Lu had figured out in his mind, then decisively stepped on the gas and charged forward. "Dong San San, begin attack!"

Li Lu made a sharp turn, turned his head and saw the J-7E No. 033 charging aggressively towards him. Immediately, he leveled off, increased the throttle and climbed, the nose of the aircraft slowly pointing towards the western sun.

This is a direction backlit.

Li Lu made good use of the angle of the sunlight.

In aerial dogfights and cannon attacks, finding and locking onto targets relies on the pilot's visual ability, which makes it easy to lose sight of targets in backlit conditions.

Xue Shuang knew Li Lu's intention. During the pursuit and climb, he slightly changed course, adjusting his position to place himself on the line of overlap between the sun and the J-7E No. 037, using the J-7E No. 037 to block the direct sunlight.

Obviously, this is a very smart move.

Li Lu keenly sensed Xue Shuang's intention. He smiled slightly and suddenly rolled downhill. The sunlight suddenly shone directly on Xue Shuang. In that instant, everything in front of Xue Shuang's eyes was golden. The J-7E No. 037 disappeared from his sight.

However, Xue Shuang knew that Li Lu was definitely still within his field of vision, but he couldn't see him for those few seconds because his eyes were affected by the sunlight.

Relying on her memory, Xue Shuang followed suit, rolling down in the same direction and then making a small-radius turn, changing from backlight to backlight. Her vision improved immediately, and her field of vision returned to clarity.

Li Lu must have taken advantage of this gap to get around to Xue Shuang's back half of the field. To gain the initiative, he must occupy Xue Shuang's back half of the field and complete the transition between offense and defense.

This is also why he reminded Xue Shuang to pay attention to the timing of the offensive and defensive transitions.

In the previous fight, Xue Shuang's awareness of offense and defense transitions was not very strong. He only tried to evade. By the time he realized he needed to use flight maneuvers to connect offense and defense, he had already been locked on and "shot down" by Li Lu.

Now, Xue Shuang has enhanced his awareness of the transition between offense and defense. After judging Li Lu's actions, he promptly turned and changed direction.

Thus, he and Li Lu were in a relative position, nose to nose.

However, he was deceived by Li Lu.

After rolling downhill, Li Lu did not turn around to go directly to Xue Shuang's rear half of the plane. As the saying goes, all's fair in war. Li Lu anticipated Xue Shuang's prediction. Therefore, after rolling downhill, Li Lu immediately switched to full throttle to maintain a heading against the light.

After pulling away more than ten kilometers in one go, Li Lufei made a large-radius turn, changing his course from backlight to backlight.

Feng Liang, on the control tower, saw from the plotting board that the position of J-7E No. 037 was changing drastically, and the distance between it and J-7E No. 033 exceeded visual range.

He immediately called out to Li Lu, "Attention, Dongsanguai, heading 70, speed 700, altitude 7000, beware of collision."

no respond.

Feng Liang paused for a moment, then called out again, "Attention, Cave 3, heading 70, speed 700, altitude 7000, beware of collision."

Still no response.

Feng Liang's heart tightened, and he switched to calling Xue Shuang, "Dong San San, tower calling, reply received!"

Xue Shuang immediately replied, "Dong Sansan received!"

Oh no, the airborne radio of J-7E No. 037 is malfunctioning.

Xu Hailiang immediately judged, "It must be due to the weather. With this strong wind and heavy rain, maybe one of the vacuum tubes burned out."

The second-generation aircraft used vacuum tubes for its onboard radios, just like televisions and radios. If even one vacuum tube burned out, the onboard radio would become unusable.

Although military products have higher quality standards than civilian products, they are still subject to much harsher operating environments.

Low temperatures affect not only aircraft during takeoff and landing, but also various components of the aircraft itself.

Hainan Airlines requires anti-corrosion treatment for its aircraft because they are used in high-salt and high-temperature environments. Without targeted treatment, the aircraft fuselage and its equipment would easily develop problems.

Li Lu was unaware that his onboard radio was broken. At this time, it was during a free air battle, and the control tower would not provide him with guidance. Xue Shuang would not tell him his location either. In other words, it happened to be a period of time when there was no radio communication.

Feng Liang immediately ordered Xue Shuang, "Dong San San! The radio at Dong San Guai might be malfunctioning. Cease air combat training and await my command to provide support to Dong San Guai!"

"Dong San San understands! Stop training and support Dong San Guai!" Xue Shuang replied steadily, slowing down the flight without hesitation.

Li Lu was completely unaware and continued flying towards Xue Shuang's location based on his own judgment...