Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
Lin Mo continued collecting metal for Gold Coin to devour so that it could recover. He almost always carried it around with him, even during flight training. He was afraid that Gold Coin would suddenly wake up when he was not around and rebel in the base. If it were to gnaw off half of a plane, he would really be in deep trouble.
The leader of the two-plane formation bringing Lin Mo this time was a Chengdu J-10 pilot with nearly one thousand hours of flying experience under his belt. He was from Daqing in the northeast, but he stood at 1.65 meters, unlike a typical bulky northeasterner. His code name was ‘Little Chicken’, and his real name was Shi Gang, a rare surname. His piloting standard was not at all weak like a chicken. He was in charge of bringing Lin Mo around the base in an air defense patrol mission with a radius of 110 kilometers from three to five in the afternoon today.
The control tower’s code name of Lin Mo’s base was ‘Chicken Nest’, which was why the code names of so many pilots were related to ‘chicken’. For example, Major Shi Gang, who often led Lin Mo’s patrols, was ‘Little Chicken’. There were also ‘Old Hen’, ‘Reed Chicken’, ‘Roast Chicken’, ‘Fighting Chicken’. For the sake of confidentiality, the code names of pilots were weird to no end. Of course, there were air base towers with super cool code names like Dragon Pool and Tiger Den.
Originally, the leader of the base tower specially selected the code name ‘Grey Chicken’ for Lin Mo, but he resisted it to the end. His argument was that children would be able to recognize him from the ground. “Look, Gray Chicken!” It was not good for the sake of confidentiality. In the end, the tower had to give up and allow Lin Mo to choose his own code name—Gold Coin. It was a code name that stood out among them, but it was unknown if the original bearer of the name had any opinions about it.
“Gold Coin, copy!” Lin Mo pulled the control stick skillfully and accelerated. The flaps of the wings of Lin Mo’s L-15 Falcon single-seat advanced trainer model with frame number J-2312 turned downward slowly, and the plane pulled up and followed the J-10 one hundred meters in front of it.
The serial number on the L-15 had no meaning. It did not mean that the plane Lin Mo was piloting was the 2312th L-15 in China. No one could deduce the production volume of the plane from the serial number other than the relevant personnel responsible for procurement for the Chinese Air Force. These serial numbers might not be completely connected, and there might even be skipped numbers. This could be regarded as a Chinese characteristic of the Chinese Air Force, unique in the world.
It was a completely different experience from riding a Giant Dragon. On the flying mount, the Air Rider only needed to remind it of the flight direction, the height, and the codes for specific actions. The flying mount controlled the entire flight, and the Air Rider only needed to devote all their energy to battle.
Piloting a jet fighter required the pilot to devote most of their energy on flight control, and they only needed to pay attention to aiming, chasing or shaking off enemies, and finally pressing the fire button during battle. The combat methods of the two worlds were completely different, which piqued Lin Mo’s interest, and the freshness made him burst out with great enthusiasm while training.
The Chengdu J-10 and the Falcon spurted gas at high speed and climbed one after the other into the clear blue sky, turning into two small black dots and disappearing into the embrace of the sky. Two long parallel trails condensed in the sky as the aviation fuel burnt.
The fuselage of the plane trembled strongly as the L-15 climbed at a high angle upward. The J-10 was deliberately controlling its speed while leading in front, and Lin Mo imitated the lead plane’s flight movements, but they were still slightly different. After all, the mechanical and propulsion structures of the two were quite different.
“Good job, Gold Coin. Now, bring her steady at twelve thousand!” Little Chicken’s voice came from the headset. “Fly upside down for fifteen seconds! Tell me immediately if you feel unwell. Don’t push it!” At an altitude of twelve thousand meters, the oxygen system in the cockpit kicked in as the temperature was low, and the air was thin at an altitude above ten thousand meters. If the pilot did not have enough oxygen supply after climbing at high speeds, they were prone to high altitude sickness if they were in a prolonged state of hypoxia.
Jet fighters were not civilian airlines. They fought in extreme environments, and comfort was inevitably sacrificed. During aerial combat, the physique of the pilot was as important as the performance and firepower of the jet fighter. This was why there were such high physical requirements for pilots.
“Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve… One! See how I somersault!” The left wing of the J-10 lifted as its right wing sank. It turned upside down dexterously with the cockpit facing the ground and its bottom facing the sky while continuing to cruise horizontally.
Lin Mo did exactly as instructed, but he overdid it a little and rolled to the side. He quickly corrected it by wobbling.
The two planes flew in the two-plane formation at an altitude of ten thousand meters with their bellies facing the sky. The ground instantly became the sky, and the sky was immediately below them. This sense of subversion was a great test of the pilot’s sense of direction.
The safety belt on the pilot seat played its role perfectly at this time, and Lin Mo did not feel any discomfort. In the other world, Gold Coin often flew upside down, so Lin Mo was used to it. In fact, this sort of flying was unnecessary for the Metal-Attribute Giant Dragon. Gold Coin was just trying to throw its hated Dragon Knight off so that he would fall and become minced meat. Lin Mo had always been very careful about this and felt no pressure. It was a piece of cake to him!
There were countless mountains within a hundred kilometers around the base. He could see the endless road winding around the mountains, extending into the distance like a black ribbon. There were only extremely scattered villages in the mountains. He could see a slightly larger town farther away, but it was nothing but a leaf on a big tree compared to big cities like Hangzhou and Shanghai. At this altitude, he could only distinguish the white buildings or brick-red buildings mixed with green vegetation.
Recognizing ground markers from the sky was a compulsory course for every pilot. Although there was military satellite positioning and navigation, no one could guarantee that these high-tech gadgets would not malfunction or misreport one day. Such electronic equipment was susceptible to damage if they encountered lightning strikes, electromagnetic bombs, or nuclear explosions. A lost pilot was in great danger. Without fuel and a suitable landing site, the pilot could only parachute off the jet.
After fifteen seconds of the special experience, the two aircraft returned to their normal positions, and the Chengdu J-10 brought the L-15 Falcon on the next flight task. In addition to normal air patrols, there were at least two A4-sized papers worth of training subjects.
“Let’s do something more thrilling next! Begin the rolling scissors maneuver!”
The pilot codenamed Little Chicken was obviously in high spirits. The J-10’s engine suddenly ejected a light blue tail flame and rolled at high speed, breaking away from the two-plane formation. It flew in an S-shaped flight trajectory in the sky, making banging sounds from time to time, breaking through the sound barrier.
Lin Mo pulled the control stick and turned the rudder at a high angle. He mirrored the flight trajectory of the J-10 and sped up.
The L-15 Falcon followed closely behind the J-10, trying to narrow the distance and reduce the angle for crossing. But the J-10 continuously made barrel rolls and other movements, constantly shaking off the L-15 Falcon. The two planes seemed to waltz high in the sky, like a perfect dance combination. They intertwined with each other and passed by each other with great tacit understanding. Every time they crossed paths was extremely thrilling, enough to stun others.
The rolling scissors maneuver was a test of distance attack and attack angle prediction. The pilot had to withstand the overload caused by the high speeds, and a little carelessness could spell the end of both pilot and aircraft, even if there was no live ammunition shooting.
After a dozen barrels, the J-10 ended this crazy rolling scissors maneuver with a sharp dive.
The voice of the veteran Little Chicken was breathless as his voice came from the helmet. “Man, I’m old. I almost can’t take it anymore. Gold Coin, how many times did you experience blackout?” The overload of G-forces consumed quite a lot of his energy.
Blackout was when the human body experienced an overload from high G-forces. It was a complete loss of peripheral vision and central vision, where pitch black appeared in front of the eyes. When the brain loss too much blood from the G-forces, the pilot might temporarily lose consciousness, become incapacitated, or even completely lose consciousness. The eyeballs of the pilot might even be pulled out of their sockets or the pilot might suffer a cerebral hemorrhage, resulting in the pilot becoming disabled and the plane ultimately crashing.
Almost every pilot, especially jet fighter pilots, had to undergo acceleration endurance training to resist and reduce the occurrence of blackouts.
“Blackout?! What blackout? Everything is normal with me. I don’t even have a cough.” Lin Mo controlled the L-15 to get out of the rolling position.
The Chengdu J-10, which was still diving, did an Immelmann turn and dashed into the sky, followed by the L-15.
The crazy rolling usually made one dizzy, but Lin Mo was still steadily controlling the L-15 Falcon Advanced Trainer. This advanced trainer manufactured by Hongdu Aircraft Company gave Lin Mo the impression that it was very durable. Although the performance was slightly different from the J-10, it was very suitable for novices.
“You didn’t have any blackouts?” The pilot in the J-10 shuddered violently. That whole set of actions previously was not something that a pilot of Lin Mo’s flying age could successfully carry out.
He had set a challenging training program for Lin Mo to adapt to blackout, but Lin Mo did not experience any. His physical qualities were rather surprising. The J-10 pilot grinned happily.