Chapter 16: Flying To The Northeast, Night Navigator, Emergency Landing In The Wild
After integration, the flight small team had common interest.
Sun Debiao went to the city early every day to contact the Shenyang side.
Shopkeeper Liu also went to Beiping City once, taking a sum of money from the business firm in the city to pay the expenses here.
Howard continued to inspect the airplane.
Fang Wen and Yue Jinping were preparing for navigation.
Two days passed, and Sun Debiao brought back good news.
They finally confirmed the landing point on a road 60 kilometers outside the city.
That place was not a main road, so no one passed through at night. As long as people watched at both ends and torches were inserted along both sides of the road, it would be the most suitable landing point.
This was a good choice. Fang Wen decided to conduct a test flight first to confirm the flight path and target.
October 24.
The Rhine NYP-2 was fully fueled, and the crew members boarded.
As night fell, the airplane started up and flew into the sky amid the roaring sound.
Flying in the pitch-black sky was a huge challenge for Fang Wen.
Even with mechanical perception, it was still easy to lose direction in the night sky.
After the airplane took off, Yue Jinping used a lantern for lighting and began positioning for navigation.
She needed to look at the guiding stars in the sky, combine them with the magnetic compass in her hand, verify each other to determine the direction, and then compare with the flight path on the map.
If she judged that the flight path deviated, she would remind Fang Wen to make a correction.
Under this cooperation, the airplane flew toward the northeast direction.
The others remained tense and silent, waiting for the result.
The straight-line distance from Beiping to Shenyang was 620 kilometers. After flying for 3 hours, they should logically be approaching Shenyang City.
They were not. Fang Wen’s intuition told him that there was a problem with the flight path.
“Yue Jinping, reposition using the North Star. We might have flown the wrong way.”
“Flown the wrong way?!” Yue Jinping immediately became nervous and hurriedly began recalculating.
After a while, she dejectedly replied: “It’s wrong. The flight path is deviated to the west. Why is that?”
Her words made the other crew members nervous too.
In this situation, Fang Wen, as captain, could not lose his composure.
He quickly thought in his mind, considering response methods.
Now, either admit failure and return to base immediately, trying again next time.
But that would cause the same problem again and attract the Japanese Army’s attention due to multiple flights.
Another way was to find the cause of the flight path deviation and remedy it temporarily.
He spoke up: “Could it be a problem with the compass? Shopkeeper Liu, is there anything in western Liaoning Province that can affect the magnetic field?”
“What is a magnetic field?” Shopkeeper Liu did not understand.
“It’s the compass.” Fang Wen explained.
Shopkeeper Liu suddenly understood. “Oh, I remember now. There are several iron mines in western Liaoning. I heard that when prospectors go into the mountains, the compasses are inaccurate.”
That was it.
The dense rich iron ore affected the magnetic field, causing Yue Jinping’s compass to give wrong guidance.
After discovering the error, Fang Wen thought about how to solve this problem.
He activated mechanical perception, making the entire airplane like part of his body, as if transforming into a mechanical giant bird.
In this state, positioning with the North Star produced a clearer sense of direction.
Shenyang City was in the northeast direction. Perhaps he could adjust the airplane’s position based on this judgment to find the correct heading.
Fang Wen turned the control stick, and the airplane changed direction in the air.
No one interfered with his operation; they were all waiting expectantly.
About 40 minutes later, Fang Wen slowed the airplane’s speed and circled at high altitude.
“Shopkeeper Liu, Sun Debiao, look at the city below. Is it Shenyang City?”
The two looked out the window.
Lights dotted below, interwoven together.
“Can’t see clearly. You can see lights at night.” Sun Debiao shook his head.
“No, that completely dark area looks a bit familiar.” Shopkeeper Liu pointed to a place.
“Really? Let me see. Here, yes, it should be the Marshal’s Mansion. Now the Young Marshal is staying in Beiping. Although the city is occupied by the Japanese, they dare not take his mansion. That’s why it’s all dark. In the past, it would be brightly lit.”
With the Marshal’s Mansion as this landmark building, the two confirmed it was Shenyang City.
Using Shenyang City as the axis, Fang Wen adjusted the flight direction and flew toward the southwest outside the city.
Ten minutes later, without Fang Wen reminding them, the crew saw it.
Below, two rows of torches were burning, forming a clear guide.
Fang Wen controlled the airplane to dive down from above, performing a simulated landing.
After the simulated landing, he gained confidence for a night landing here.
Then, the airplane climbed, turned around, and returned to Beiping.
After the airplane safely landed at Nanyuan Aviation Airport, Fang Wen made a request to Shopkeeper Liu and Sun Debiao.
“Cut down the trees on both sides of the road. Without trees, the safety factor for night landing will be high.”
“Just this? Nothing else?” Shopkeeper Liu asked.
“No. Have them prepare quickly over there. Contact us to start the action once everything is ready.” Fang Wen replied confidently. On this round trip, he had confirmed the flight path. The next flight would deviate a bit to the east, avoiding this magnetic field problem. As long as there were no obstacles on the ground during landing, it would not be difficult.
The test flight ended, and the flight team was ready.
The rest was up to Shopkeeper Liu and Sun Debiao.
They took turns going to Beiping. In addition to contacting the Shenyang side, they also reported the situation to the bosses in Shanghai.
Everything was proceeding quietly in secret.
No one knew that someone was secretly smuggling valuable items out of Shenyang City in small batches.
At the same time, confidants from various business firms arrived at that landing area and cut down all the nearby maple woods and pine trees.
These actions would not attract the Japanese’s attention for the time being, but if delayed too long, problems might arise.
October 26.
Sun Debiao returned excitedly.
“Mr. Fang, Shenyang sent a telegram requesting to start the action tonight.”
More than ten days had passed since learning about this matter. It was time to successfully conclude this action.
Fang Wen straightened his clothes, ate dinner early, and waited on the airplane.
Time passed bit by bit, and the sky gradually darkened.
The Rhine NYP-2 flew into the sky, this time flying along the coastline of Bohai Bay. When entering Liaoning Province, the sky was just completely dark.
Under the cover of night, flying at high altitude, the airplane did not alarm the people below and quietly approached Shenyang City.
Then, using Shenyang City as the coordinate, the airplane flew toward the landing point southwest outside the city.
Two rows of torches burned below, guiding the direction. Nothing else could be seen.
They could only assume the other side had finished cutting down the trees on the ground. Fang Wen tried to stay calm, adjusted the control stick, reduced speed, circled to find the landing angle.
When the airplane aligned with the ground torch runway, it dived down. As it was about to approach, Fang Wen pulled up the control stick.
The nose lifted slightly, the fuselage sank, and then the airplane shook violently as the landing gear touched down.
The airplane slid forward for 100 meters before finally stopping on this northeast road.
Sun Debiao jumped off the airplane first and blew a whistle.
The other side immediately responded, and then a large number of torches lit up, approaching the airplane.
