Descent from an altitude of 10,000 meters (The Approach)Ch3 - Duty phone number

Chen Jiayu was holding onto the radio tightly. The evening in Beijing was calm and clear, but he wasn’t in the mood to enjoy it.. Every two minutes, he tuned into the approaching frequency and heard a stream of instructions, so much so that he couldn’t even get a word in. It looked like there were a lot of flights today, and some of them had to wait their turn as well.

The air traffic controller’s voice sounded lazy, a standard broadcasting tone mixed with a bit of Beijing dialect. Chen Jiayu was surprised to hear a different voice than usual. Over the past few weeks, the voice from Daxing’s approach was always a familiar female voice, and the control tower was operated by his aviation college classmate, Lu Yan. Chen Jiayu had been flying this route for over a month, usually returning to Beijing around the same time each day. Lu Yan is familiar with him, and if asked, she’ll often let him slide off the runway and land first. But today, it seemed like someone else was on duty. 8veAXf

Sure enough, Fang Hao quickly denied his request: “Air China 1332, there’s a situation on the ground. Runway 17L is not available. Descend to 3600 and maintain.”

Chen Jiayu immediately responded: “Then I request Runway 19R, Air China 1332.” He was in a hurry to land and chose a new runway based on his knowledge of the airport, unaware that Runway 19R was reserved for KLM.

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Fang Hao replied, “Air China 1332, there’s activity on 19R as well.”

“Please assign a new runway. Air China 1332,” Chen followed up immediately. BxLrnJ

Fang Hao ignored him and did not reply, more concerned about the KLM flight climbing to 6000 meters. And call them first: “KLM 1327, how is your situation?”

The KLM captain didn’t respond for a few seconds. Fang Hao lowered his head and anxiously checked the plane’s course, altitude, and position, confirming they were as he had directed and noticing the emergency code displayed by the crew. He relaxed slightly. It’s easy for accidents to happen during takeoff and landings. 80% of air disasters occurred during these times, so he was extremely cautious with the slightest issue.

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It took five seconds before the KLM crew confirmed: “We need radar vectors to a fuel-dumping area. KLM 1237.”

Mjcu Ljb lwwfvljafis ujnf lcragemalbcr: “BOZ 1237, Efmflnfv. Qf’gf ubccj ajxf sbe rbeatybecv ab vewq oefi. Jilwy ab 6000 jcv wjlcajlc, ois tfjvlcu 220.”

Coafg lrrelcu atfrf lcragemalbcr, tf vlvc’a obgufa jybea Jtfc Aljse jcv obiibkfv eq bc atf mtjccfi: “Clg Jtlcj 1332, atfgf’r j mbcoilma. Uifjrf kjla.”

Jtfc Aljse vlgfmais wjvf j gfdefra: “Jjc kf erf Eeckjs 01? Qf mjc jmmfqa j mgbrrklcv. Clg Jtlcj 1332.” Cr j mjqajlc, tf mbeivc’a joobgv ab yf qjrrlnf. Llr olgra qglbglas kjr ab mbcrlvfg atf rjofas bo jii qjrrfcufgr bc ybjgv. Lfcmf, Jtfc Aljse jikjsr rqbxf ragjlutaobgkjgvis jcv ecjqbibufalmjiis bc atf jlgkjnfr, cfnfg tfrlajalcu ab rajaf tlr cffvr.

Fang Hao denied the request again: “There are already two planes queued for runway 01. Ahead of you…” He looked at the display screen, “Ahead of you are Southern Airlines and Jinxu. You should just hold your position for now, Air China 1332.”

When Chen Jiayu and his crew were descending, they encountered a traffic flow restriction and were led by the area control to fluctuate between 9800 and 10.100 meters. Feeling a bit frustrated, he protested: “I only got 45 minutes of fuel left. We were routed on a lengthy route when departing from Baiyun and had to circle upon arriving at Daxing. What’s going on today?” EdXSMJ

Fang Hao responded in a very official tone, not mincing words: “Air China 1332, are you declaring a fuel emergency?”

In the cockpit, Xu Gengchuan looked at Chen Jiayu awkwardly.

Chen Jiayu wanted to declare it, but he thought Xu Gengchuan was the primary pilot for this trip and didn’t want to cause trouble, so he restrained himself: “Not for now. But you—”

Before he could finish, he was interrupted by the tower controller, who was more concerned about the KLM situation. Ajwik2

Fang Hao went back to follow the KLM situation and then gave Southern Airlines permission to land. After observing KLM climbing to 5400 meters, he instructed Jinxu to continue descending to 3000 meters.

After handling all this, he returned to Chen Jiayu: “Air China 1332, there was interference just now, please repeat.”

Unlike voice calls, radio communication cannot be spoken by two people at the same time. If such a situation occurs, one needs to say “interference” and then repeat the message. But just now, there was clearly no interference; it was the approach controller that cut him off, right?

Before Chen Jiayu could say anything, the captain of Jinxiu Airlines spoke: “Jinxiu 3185, um… Air China 1332, if you’re low on fuel, you can go ahead and descend first. We can wait. Maintain altitude at 4000. Jinxiu 3185.” wDqltp

Chen Jiayu finally had a hint of a smile. He didn’t care much about being famous, but sometimes, it worked to his advantage. Like now, he was pleased that it could help him achieve his goal of landing early.
He didn’t care much whether the captain of the other flight recognized him based on his voice and flight route and thus gave way or simply because they had arrived early and were not in a rush.

Unexpectedly, Fang Hao gave another negative reply: “Jinxiu 3185, you descend first. Your position is already ahead. Runway 10. Descend to 3000 immediately.”

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The captain of Jinxiu had no choice but to accept.

Fang Hao resumed his nonchalant tone as if nothing had happened: “Air China 1332, be aware of the 747 wake turbulence ahead. Your interval is quite short.” RcFf 9

“Damn it,” Chen Jiayu cursed silently, waiting for Jinxiu to land before turning on the radio: “Jinxiu is ahead of us in position, but we are at a lower altitude. You..” What do you mean by this?

Fang Hao was unyielding: “Air China 1332, I’ve explained before there’s an emergency on the ground, and the Area Control has already informed you of a minor delay. Our duty phone number is 12349, feel free to complain if you have further issues.”

Seeing Fang Hao’s firm stance, Chen Jiayu could only comply with a dark face and continued waiting in the air. He wondered, who was this air traffic controller?
Could it be a newcomer trained by Lu Yan? Why is he so unyielding? Chen Jiayu decided that the first thing he would do after landing was to find Lu Yan and find out.

Translator comment: So, first meeting :D. I think the author said this was a “counterattack”, but just once. 8FM9Sj

I initially wanted to put Fan Hao’s radio communications in italics, as the chapter could be in Chen Jiayu’s POV, but then I saw it was kinda switching and decided to just italicize the third party instead. >.<

Should I put all radio communications in italics?