Night vision pod and identification friend or foe
The weather refused to cooperate. There was no moonlight tonight, and even the stars had vanished from the sky.
The runway was pitch-black. Li Zhi could barely make it out, with only a faint glow along either side outlining it.
"Chicken Coop, I'm ready. Requesting takeoff!"
"Three-Yellow Chicken, field pressure 998, southerly wind force 2, gusts force 4. Stay safe!"
This was Li Zhi's first night flight, and he hadn't expected it to be under these circumstances.
Boom!
The engine's afterburner briefly lit up the runway around him, allowing the people in the tower to catch a glimpse of the fighter.
With visibility so severely limited, Li Zhi could only rely on his instruments and the tower's guidance.
"Minimum takeoff speed!"
After the fighter had rolled down the runway for a few seconds, the flight control system alerted him that it had reached takeoff speed.
Li Zhi didn't pull the fighter up immediately. He waited another two seconds or so before lifting off. He had to play it safe now; if he rushed, something could easily go wrong.
Once airborne, the fighter began to climb, then vanished into the vast darkness.
Watching Li Zhi disappear, Xu Feng quietly breathed a sigh of relief in the tower.
The destination was a well-known military airfield inside Yuzhou's third ring road, one that could even be found on major navigation maps.
Before Li Zhi arrived, the person in charge of the airfield had received orders from above and had already gotten the equipment and personnel ready!
Infrared night vision equipment designed for fighters was still a rarity in Dragon Country. There weren't many in the whole country, and Yuzhou had only this one set.
It had to be mounted on a fighter and connected to its flight control system to work properly!
That meant Li Zhi's aircraft would need some minor modifications here.
"201, this is Three-Yellow Chicken!"
201 was the airfield's call sign. Using numbers as call signs was something of a tradition in Dragon Country.
The fighter had entered 201 Airport's controlled airspace. To land there, he naturally had to report to its tower and follow its instructions.
"Three-Yellow Chicken, we have you in sight. Follow the designated route!"
"Follow the designated route, Three-Yellow Chicken copies!"
Yuzhou was, after all, a megacity with a population of over twenty million. Even air force fighters couldn't fly around wherever they pleased!
The base was some distance from Yuzhou's main urban area. Even at a fighter's speed, the flight had taken nearly an hour.
"Three-Yellow Chicken, land on runway L02. Prepare for landing!"
"Copy!"
As the largest military airfield in the entire southwest, 201 had four main runways alone. Countless fighters and transport planes took off and landed there every day.
Since the airfield didn't need to be deliberately concealed, its runways were brightly lit.
All the lights had also been specially treated so they wouldn't dazzle pilots.
"Three-Yellow Chicken, field pressure 1008, southerly wind force 2, gusts force 3. Follow the ground guide vehicle after landing!"
The tower controller had clearly received some kind of instruction. He told Li Zhi to follow the ground guide vehicle immediately after landing, and it would take him to the destination.
"Copy!"
Pilots might act like hotshots in the sky, but they still had to listen to the tower controller and do whatever they were told!
The entire airfield was as bright as day, so Li Zhi had no trouble landing.
Once the fighter had slowed all the way down, a guide vehicle came to a stop in front of it and signaled for Li Zhi to follow.
The night vision equipment obviously couldn't be installed on the runway. Li Zhi and Captain Xu's fighter was taken into a hangar, where the equipment and installation crew had been waiting for a long time!
Li Zhi couldn't help with the installation at all, and no one had time to pay him any attention. With no other choice, he took care of his bodily needs, then stood to one side in a daze.
The installation wasn't complicated; it was just a matter of adding a pod to the fighter. Even so, the crew didn't dare let their guard down for a moment.
Fighters were both powerful and extremely fragile. The slightest mistake could destroy the aircraft and kill its pilot, so no one dared be careless.
"Comrade, the installation's finished. Sorry for the trouble, but could you come over here?"
Installing it wasn't enough. An engineer still needed to give Li Zhi a brief lesson on how to use it.
It was very simple to operate. The night vision equipment shared a screen with the onboard radar, and switching between them wasn't complicated either. All he had to do was turn a special knob that normally went unused.
After a brief explanation from the technician, Li Zhi knew how to use it. Since he was still on the ground, though, he couldn't yet tell how well it worked.
"201, Three-Yellow Chicken requesting taxi clearance!"
"Taxi to runway L02 and prepare for takeoff!"
The tower hadn't assigned Li Zhi a different runway. He had landed on L02, which was also the runway closest to his current hangar.
"Three-Yellow Chicken has taxied to L02 and is ready for takeoff!"
"Cleared for immediate takeoff. Field pressure 1008, southerly wind force 2, gusts force 3. See you, Three-Yellow Chicken!"
After takeoff, Li Zhi would return to Chicken Coop tower's control, so the tower at 201 Airport said goodbye to him.
There was an unwritten rule in aviation: never wish a pilot "tailwinds all the way," because for a pilot, tailwinds all the way were hardly a blessing.
Li Zhi released the brakes and pushed the throttle to maximum. The fighter shot forward like a sharp sword.
"Minimum takeoff speed!"
Li Zhi pulled the fighter up. Although he had graduated from the academy less than a month ago, there was no trace of inexperience in his takeoff. He was as polished as a genuine veteran pilot!
"201, see you!"
After saying goodbye to 201 tower, Li Zhi changed frequencies and returned to Chicken Coop Base's channel.
"Chicken Coop, this is Three-Yellow Chicken. I've taken off from 201 and am returning to base!"
"Three-Yellow Chicken, proceed directly to the target area and join the search. The identification friend or foe module has been sent to you!"
"Join the search, Three-Yellow Chicken copies!"
The ground soldiers all carried friend-or-foe identification equipment. It was essential for nighttime combat and joint operations between different branches of the military; otherwise, friendly fire could easily occur.
This was all thanks to the completion of the Tianshu System. Without it, they really wouldn't have been able to make it work.
Before leaving Yuzhou's main urban area, Li Zhi switched to infrared mode to test it. There were so many heat sources in the city below that the screen was covered in patches of red, making it impossible to distinguish anything.
Looks like this thing isn't much use in the city!
It was just as well the experts hadn't heard that, or they would have pointed a finger in Li Zhi's face and scolded him.
This equipment simply couldn't be used over the main urban area. With tens of millions of heat sources there, no matter how good a high-altitude night vision device was, it couldn't possibly distinguish them all!