Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
He went to put on his anti-G suit and put the metal egg, Gold Coin’s incarnation, in his pocket. He first went to the finance department to get the money, and then he had a bowl of porridge and some steamed buns to cushion his stomach in the cafeteria before rushing to the hangar.
On the flight line was a silver, two-seater Chengdu J-10 ready to go, and the conformal auxiliary fuel tank had been mounted. The ground crew and mechanics were doing the final checks. When they saw Lin Mo, they waved to him and made a ready gesture. The ground crew of the hangar waved a signal stick to the runway ground crew responsible for inspecting the runway while holding a two-way radio and reporting to the tower that the pilot was in place.
“Have a safe journey!” Often, a group of mechanics would be responsible for several planes. They patted Lin Mo on the shoulder, ushered him toward the cockpit, and helped him secure the cockpit canopy.
Although he usually trained using an L-15 Falcon, did not have much actual flight time using J-10s, and a lot of his J-10 flight experience was learned through the simulator, Lin Mo was not unfamiliar with one.
Lin Mo turned on the instrumental panel to perform the self-check procedure. The single-engine Russian AL31-F turbofan engine outputted powerful propulsion and pushed the airframe that weighed more than ten tons to the runway approach area.
Ten seconds later, the Chengdu J-10 jet fighter with serial number 11 roared off the runway and rushed into the sky.
“Gold Coin calling Chicken Nest! All normal. Heading east. Current altitude, four thousand meters!” Lin Mo called the tower by radio. He knew from the when he piloted a Boeing civil airliner that the pilot had to communicate with the tower at all times, not only to let the tower know the state of the aircraft but also the pilot’s psychological state.
“The authorized altitude is twelve thousand meters. Channel reported.”
The tower, Chicken Nest, navigated Lin Mo through radar and satellites.
While the J-10 gave Lin Mo an enormous push back force, it also held Lin Mo firmly in the seat. There was no comfort to speak of in the jet fighter, and of course, it was much faster than civil airliners. Because the fuel tank was mounted and fuel was ample, Lin Mo occasionally used the afterburner to reach Mach 1.5. And since it was an air force route, there was no need to worry about yielding the way.
Although it was called a supersonic jet fighter, it was only able to break through the sound barrier and use Mach multiple to calculate the speed when using the afterburner. However, it could not maintain supersonic cruise for a long time. Not only would the fuel consumption double, but the engine would also be under great strain. Even the American F-22, known as a fifth-generation fighter, could only cruise at supersonic speeds for up to half an hour. Normally, fighting at supersonic speed was only for tactical maneuvering needs, and supersonic speeds consumed a lot of energy for pilots.
Even so, Lin Mo could not fly as he wanted when patrolling the sky near the base. If he deviated slightly from the route, he would be warned immediately; if he was a bit slow, he might receive disciplinary actions; and if he could not return to the route in time, a missile would overtake him and show him a firework in the air. In particular, when passing through the capital, Beijing, he could only go around it in a big circle.
In the sky above this ancient capital, it was absolutely forbidden for non-Beijing Military Region or specially authorized aircraft to pass over it. Any aircraft that passed near the capital was even automatically locked by multiple air-to-surface missiles.
Under the guidance of the satellites, Lin Mo traversed two thousand kilometers and landed the air base in Dalian in just two hours. As soon as he got off the plane, he hurried to the seafood market in the arranged military jeep.
According to the menu given by Regiment Commander Jiang, he bought all kinds of seafood such as abalone, sea cucumber, grouper, and so on, as well as some stuff from the farmer’s market. At least a hundred kilograms of seafood and vegetables were packed into boxes. Upon returning to the military airport in Dalian and informing people, he flew the Chengdu J-10 into the blue sky again.
Regiment Commander Jiang was right. Even with the hour-plus spent purchasing the seafood and vegetables, Lin Mo would still manage to rush back to the base in time for the end of lunch.
Above and below the clouds were completely two worlds. Even if there was a heavy downpour below the clouds, the sunlight above the clouds was still very dazzling, and the air was very pure. The clear blue sky, which was not very visible in big cities, was endless above the clouds. Without sunglasses, the unobstructed sunlight at high altitudes was likely to blind your eyes. Lin Mo was extremely satisfied with the sunglasses on the Air Force’s helmet. He had to admit that the air forces in this world took far better care of their pilots’ comfort than in the other world. Air Riders exposed to strong winds and low temperatures could only protect themselves using their battle aura in the sky.
Lin Mo’s battle aura attribute was the light element, and his battle aura was more active in high altitudes like this than on the ground. Every time Lin Mo flew through the clouds, he grabbed the opportunity to condense as much battle aura as possible, lest he wasted all the training he had done learning battle aura skills, living in his current comfortable and easy life.
“Gold Coin calling Chicken Nest! I’m returning!” At the altitude of twelve thousand meters, which was more than three thousand meters higher than the highest peak in the world, on a channel that was higher than the normal flight altitude of a general civilian airliner, Lin Mo was enjoying the sufficient oxygen provided by the on-board oxygen cylinder. The distant sky was a clear dark blue arc, setting off the Earth’s spherical curve.
At the Chengdu J-10’s altitude, it was still surrounded by large light clouds. They were a sea of high-altitude clouds and a great distance away from the clouds below. The clouds that could appear at altitudes above ten thousand meters were water molecules condensed into solid femoral particles after ‘secondary evaporation’ at the bottom of the stratosphere. They looked ethereal and misty, like a wonderland.
“The radar has confirmed your position! You will arrive at the security zone in approximately sixty minutes. Runway 2 will be opened to you!” The Chicken Nest’s command personnel found the position of Lin Mo’s J-10 on the screen and received various parameters from the airborne system feedback.
“Help me to notify the cafeteria to save me lunch!” Lin Mo replied.
“Copy! Contact again in thirty minutes.” Chicken Nest’s response was always short and concise as it ended the call.
Immediately after finishing the call, the J-10 at high altitude suddenly sank. Lin Mo felt that the jet fighter had suddenly dropped a few dozen meters before being thrown up again. The alarm in the cockpit rang loudly. Lin Mo manipulated the control stick to adjust the angle slowly.
“Calling Chicken Nest. Gold Coin has run into high-altitude turbulence!” Lin Mo sent out a call again amid the violent ups and downs of the plane. His voice was calm. To remain calm under any situation was the first requirement of a pilot’s psychological quality.
Lin Mo had run into this kind of situation before in the other world. This was a special type of turbulence encountered at extremely high altitudes. Moreover, there were no signs nor obvious boundaries. It could neither be seen with the naked eye nor detected by radar. According to the scientific books of this world, he should have encountered clear sky turbulence.
“Chicken Nest received! Lower altitude. Leave the turbulence!” The previously calm voice of the tower suddenly became serious. High-altitude turbulence was a major threat to aircraft. A while ago, a fighter jet at the base encountered wind shear and crashed during landing. If something happened to Lin Mo’s J-10, the base leaders would probably vomit blood.
“If necessary, abandon the auxiliary fuel tank!” The voice of personnel in the tower had changed. Obviously, the person in charge of the tower had taken over the call.
“Yes!” Lin Mo looked down. During the undulations, he saw a wide expense of gray below. It was an urban area. His throat moved as he swallowed hard. “Report! A city is below!” The auxiliary fuel tank with a low of fuel remaining was no less powerful than an aerial incendiary bomb.
“…” The people in Chicken Nest were stunned. Anyone thinking with their toes would know that abandoning the auxiliary fuel tank over a crowded city was no different from a terrorist act. When flying over cities and facing issues in the air, almost all Air Force pilots would choose to delay until they reached suburbs or empty land to force a landing or possibly even a crash. When encountering such situations, the pilots were often too late to eject and were unable to escape disaster.
Since the founding of New China, Chinese Air Force pilots had never crashed in densely populated urban areas.
“You must remain steady!” The person in charge of Chicken Nest and Lin Mo had almost the same thoughts. But the tone from the tower was somewhat tense. Lin Mo remained as calm as ever as he recalled the emergency regulations in the textbooks and started dealing with it gradually.