Before the transfer took off, Li Zhan had a meal, it was early in the afternoon at three o'clock, after he peed, he didn't feel hungry, but he still bit a piece of chocolate given by the plane.

At 3:15 p.m., Li Zhan drove the J-8FR numbered 101 from Longcheng Airport and stabbed directly into the dim sky to the west. He didn't covet the voice of the approaching girl anymore, and stepped over the approach platform and directly contacted Nanzhi.

He was flying a fighter jet, and there was no need to go through the same set of procedures as civil aviation. Moreover, in terms of airspace priority and route priority, civil aviation is on the sidelines, so it is troublesome.

At this time, there are still many civilian airliners flying over Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, and several routes are going through rain clouds and cold air from the south. The civil aviation control department has been closely monitoring the meteorological conditions in the airspace over which it is flying, and the air traffic control department of the military has also been providing assistance to help clear the relevant airspace, so that the civil airliner can use the shortest route away from the complex meteorological airspace.

Judging from the track map, all the planes were flying outward, and only the word "JH101" representing Li Zhan dragged a long dotted line towards the center of the huge cloud.

Flying under complex meteorological conditions has always been a high threshold, and pilots with this ability are generally veterans who have flown 2,000 hours, and it is not uncommon to have 3,000 or 4,000 hours of flight time. How to assess the difficulty factor of flying in complex meteorological conditions? In the final analysis, it is one of the criteria for measuring ace pilots.

Li Zhan is very unfamiliar with many actual combat subjects, and even has no contact with some subjects at all, but his flying skills, including day and night flight in complex meteorological environments, cross-day and night flights, and the handling of sudden dangers, he is almost among the top people in the Second Division.

Otherwise, he would not be eligible to sit in the cockpit of the J-8FR, and he also got such a number as 101.

Despite this, after entering the southward cold air mass from a height of three thousand meters, Li Zhan also clearly felt the power of the complex weather. Under the influence of cold air clouds from Siberia, heavy rains have fallen in the western part of Gui province. Stretching for hundreds of kilometers, it is only a matter of time before the southwest region continues to be replenished by strong water vapor, resulting in continuous heavy rainfall, and the precipitation in the upstream area has exceeded 100 milliliters, and it is constantly rising, and it is only a matter of time before it becomes extremely heavy.

Therefore, there is no suspense, Li Zhan first encountered the problem of a sharp drop in visibility. After plunging headlong into the rain zone, there are clouds and mist as far as the eye can see.

Li Zhan turned on the search radar, and at the same time reported to Nanzhi, "Nanzhi, I am a unit, my visibility is not good, please go down to the height." ”

He is not very worried about hitting a mountain or colliding in the air, the J-8FR is based on the F-type modification, and in the nose is a fire control radar that is the same as the early J-10, and the performance is more advanced than that used in the early SU-27. Don't think that the old eighth master will underestimate the F-type, if it weren't for the hard flaw of the aerodynamic layout, it is estimated that it can continue to be used for decades like the H-6.

The commander of Nanzhi paused and said, "You go up to eight thousand first, try to see if you can fly on the cumulonimbus clouds, and here you want aerial photos of the cumulonimbus clouds." ”

"Understood, I'm climbing now, up to eight thousand." Li Zhan did not hesitate at all, first put on the oxygen mask, then pushed the throttle lever, and when the speed came up, he decisively pulled the lever to climb.

The excellent acceleration performance of the J-8FR, which was born from the eighth master, was brought into play, and with the blessing of an average climb rate of more than 270 meters per second, it took less than half a minute to reach an altitude of 8,000 meters.

However, after reaching 8,000 meters, Li Zhan's line of sight was still cloudy, the air flow was very strong, and the fighter plane was seriously turbulent, he continued to climb while reporting to Nanzhi, "Nanzhi, I am unitary, 8,000 However, please continue to ascend to the altitude." ”

"Agreed, there are no planes in your airspace, be prepared to report." After the commander of the South Command determined the clearance of the airspace, he decisively agreed to Li Zhan's request.

Li Zhan continued to climb.

I silently sang "Thirty Thousand Feet" in my heart: climbing, speed pushed me to the back of the chair......

Since the start of the flight, he has never tried to climb from an altitude of two or three thousand meters to an altitude of 10,000 meters in one go. In fact, for fighter jets, the opportunity to fly at an altitude of 10,000 meters is becoming less and less. Unless it's flying over the vast ocean.

With the continuous development of the local economy, more and more routes and airspace have been handed over to local civil aviation, making great contributions to economic development. As the air force continues to rise and fall, the air force's training airspace must be constantly compressed, and even in order to make room for it, not only have many airports been handed over to the localities, but some airfields with important positions are also being relocated.

Like the trap that Chen Fei almost fell into, the local government only looked at economic development and ignored the security of territorial air defense, and insisted on building high-rise buildings in the places where the take-off route passed. This matter has not been resolved until now. As Li Zhan said, once completed, the fighters at the Xixian Station will have to climb or turn at a large elevation angle as soon as they leave the runway. Ironically, pilots are being forced to advance......

The front side suddenly brightened, and the bright sun was at eleven o'clock, Li Zhan breathed a sigh of relief, glanced at the altimeter, and the altitude was 15,000 meters above sea level, and he obviously felt that the power of the fighter plane had deteriorated very seriously.

This altitude is very safe, and no civil airline aircraft will fly at this altitude.

He resumed level flight, maintaining a course of 270.

"Nanzhi, I am a unit, the altitude is 13,000, the course is 207, the cruising speed, the clouds are below me, please identify it by radar, there is no problem I will start taking pictures." Li Zhan called Nanzhi, because he was wearing an oxygen mask, and his speech was a little urn-like, but it was quite clear.

The commander of Nanzhi quickly replied, "You are in a good position, you can start aerial photography, maintain the heading speed for five minutes, and then do a circle, to be continued later." ”

"Understood, hold for five minutes and circle in a circle." Li Zhan turned on the high-speed camera and began to photograph the huge clouds below.

There are cumulonimbus clouds, unformed cumulonimbus clouds, thunderstorms, and rising air currents carrying abundant water vapor, which can be described as a gathering of cows, ghosts, snakes, and gods. If he hadn't climbed decisively on the periphery, I'm afraid he would have been a lonely boat swaying in the wind and waves.

When he began to circle, Li Zhan carefully observed the huge clouds, and the more he looked, the more frightened he became. Of course, he is familiar with the weather, and flying an airplane is not familiar with the weather is like driving a car and not being familiar with the traffic rules. What kind of weather can't fly, what kind of weather can barely fly, and where the weather will change, we must be aware and forward-looking.

What's more, during the period when the flight was grounded, he not only followed the work of the aircraft maintenance, but also often went to the meteorological station to learn meteorological knowledge in depth.

Don't be a fool to be a leader, there are good reasons why I can send you here, such as your flying skills are not only excellent, but also your ability to interpret the weather.

Li Zhan couldn't wait for the technician to read it after landing, and without the slightest hesitation, he reported his opinion to the south finger, "I call the south finger, this huge cloud below me is not simple, combined with the thickness that passes through when climbing, once this cloud is transformed into cumulonimbus clouds, it will bring heavy rainfall for a long time." ”

The commander of the South Finger obviously knew that Li Zhan was detailed, and his judgment was very heavy, and he immediately said, "Zero, keep observing, the radar is confirming your location." ”

"Pointing south, I should be at the junction of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, heading 270 not far from the Hengduan Mountains." Li Zhan said.

The commander of Nanzhi subconsciously smiled, "How do you know?" Converted from bearing data? ”

"No, the feeling of flying, how far I flew, and where I flew, I know in my heart." Li Zhan said.

He is a person who has experienced a power outage in the cockpit of night flight, a landing gear failure and a successful forced landing, and the flight feeling can be said to have reached a new level. One of the reasons why flying is a high-risk profession is that airplanes have almost no reference in the sky. You can't fly in a variety of environments just by relying on landmark flying, let alone fighting. If you are driving on land, if the markings on both sides are gone, the chance of rushing off the road will increase dramatically, and the sky will not be able to draw the line. What to do, in addition to technical instruments such as compasses, can only rely on the pilot's senses, the perception of body balance. Here's why pilots should be trained to fight syncope.

Another example is that low-altitude sea-skimming flights have always been regarded by Hainan Airlines as a high-risk combat subject, because once the pilot has the illusion of even 0.5 seconds, the fighter will plunge headlong into the sea.

After the radar identified and confirmed Li Zhan's location, the officers on duty in the south finger were sincerely admired, and several of them gave a thumbs up, regardless of whether Li Zhan could see it or not - the position of the No. 101 J-8FR fighter determined by the radar was basically consistent with Li Zhan's judgment.

"Zero, your judgment has been fed back to the locality, and now you need to keep hovering and continue to monitor this cloud." The commander of the South Command gave Li Zhan a new order.

Li Zhan didn't stop observing the clouds below, he thought for a while, and asked again, "Nanzhi, the area at the junction of Yunnan and Guizhou is the place with the largest altitude difference, if there is super heavy rainfall, the water level upstream will definitely skyrocket, I request to detect under the clouds, and take aerial photography of the relevant areas, if I don't shoot now, I am worried that once there is super heavy rainfall, there will be no conditions for flying." In addition, I have to collect data about the cloud cluster. ”

The risk of doing so is significant, but it is relatively small compared to doing so after the onset of heavy rainfall. On the other hand, the ground weather radar observed that the cloud height was still 2,000 meters, and if Li Zhan went down to an altitude of less than 2,000 meters to carry out aerial photography, there would be no problem.

However, to descend to a height of 1,000, Li Zhan had to swoop through a huge layer of cumulonimbus clouds several kilometers thick.

However, that's not the hardest part!

Don't forget, the cloud layer of 2,000 meters is the altitude not the relative height, the area at the junction of Yunnan and Guizhou belongs to the edge of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and its own altitude is more than 1,000 meters!

It is equivalent to saying that as soon as Li Zhan gets out of the clouds, he will face the situation of flying between the mountains.