Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 104, Part 103: A flight across India, covering 3000 kilometers in a day.
On the runway of Kolkata Airport, Fang Wen shook hands with Hull to say goodbye.

"Thank you for your help. See you again sometime."

“Probably not, I’ve already applied to return home.” Hel hesitated for a moment, then added, “I suggest you don’t go out at night after you arrive in Delhi.”

"Why?" Fang Wen asked.

Yesterday's pleasant exchange left Her with a good impression of Fang Wen.

They talked about things that could only be discussed in private.

In recent years, calls for the independence of British India have grown louder and louder, leading to the relocation of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi last year.

Delhi has now become a political center again, with various factions involved.

The Congress Party also launched a civilized disobedience movement, which meant neither resistance nor cooperation, with the party leader leading a hunger strike.

It wasn't until this year that the Governor-General of British India signed the Delhi Agreement.

The agreement required the Congress Party to cease its civilized disobedience movement; the British side also abolished all martial law and released criminals.

As a result, the British gradually lost control of the area, and it became unsafe at night.

Fang Wen nodded, thanked Hel for the reminder, boarded the plane, and said goodbye.

The plane was flying at an altitude of 3000 meters, with British Indian territory below.

As far as the eye can see, there is only barren land.

The area is at a high altitude and mostly consists of hills and mountains.

There is no trace of a large city at all.

Every long distance, there are human settlements, which can be called villages or tribes.

Looking down over India from the air, Fang Wen gained a new understanding of the region.

Although this area is vast, it is extremely short of water.

No wonder that in ancient times, the major wars between various ethnic groups in Asia rarely involved this area. Without water, there is no development; without food reserves, what's the point of plundering?

It wasn't until halfway through the flight that Fang Wen finally saw a large river.

That is the Ganges River, which meanders beneath the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and eventually flows into the Bay of Bengal.

The Ganges River is the best ground landmark. Fang Wen exited the mechanical perception state and flew upstream along the Ganges.

More than an hour later, the Shrike reached the upper reaches of the Ganges.

Delhi is a city built on the banks of the Ganges River, and only the Ganges could nurture a large city on this barren land.

Fang Wen circled over the city, searching for the airport's location.

This opportunity also gave him a comprehensive understanding of Delhi.

The city is divided into two parts. The upper part is Old Delhi, which has many ancient buildings and is also the old city.

The larger area below is New Delhi, which was under continuous construction from 1911 until it took 29 years to complete.

In the southeastern part of New Delhi, there is a relatively small airport, which should be Parlam Airport.

Fang Wen was about to turn on the radio to call the ground.

Suddenly, I saw a biplane take off from the airport.

After taking off, the biplane adjusted its fuselage and flew towards the Shrike.

What does the other party want to do?

Fang Wen maneuvered the Shrike past it, then quickly circled and turned around, finally aligning it with the biplane.

He looked at the other person, and the other person was looking at him too.

In the era of piston-engine aircraft, especially in the era of open cockpits, pilots who met in the air could not communicate by speaking or radio.

However, some meanings can be expressed through certain internationally recognized gestures.

such as:

"OK" gesture:
It indicates that everything is normal, preparations are complete, or confirmation of a certain situation. It is usually done by extending the palm, forming a circle with the index finger and thumb, and keeping the other three fingers straight.

"thumbs up":
It means "I am fine", "everything is normal" or "ready". This gesture originated from the fact that when the plane was about to take off, the pilots could not communicate with the ground crew because of the loud engine noise, so they raised their thumbs to indicate "I am ready".

"Wave his hand":
It expresses negation, disagreement, or warning. It is done by swinging the arms from side to side.

Pointing gesture:

Pointing with your arm and fingers in a specific direction or towards a target. This is a very intuitive gesture used to indicate direction, location, or target.

Aircraft turning hand signals:

One hand is held upright, while the other hand is rotated in a circle, representing an airplane turning.

Aircraft forward and stop hand signals:
Similar to the hand signals used by ground personnel, both arms are fully extended, raised above the head, with fingertips pointing upwards, to indicate advance.

Extend both arms and raise them above your head, waving them in a cross shape to indicate a stop or emergency signal.

There is also a special hand gesture, the gesture for shutting down an airplane's engine:
It means making a gesture similar to "slitting one's throat".

Therefore, the two pilots communicated by hand gestures at high altitude.

Fang Wen raised his left arm to represent himself, while his right arm reached out from behind and pointed downwards.

Then make the OK sign.

It means I'm going to land here.

The other person waved their hand, and then made a horizontal sweeping motion with their right hand from back to front.

Then he pointed to himself, and then to Fang Wen.

The gesture was not standard, and Fang Wen was unsure of its meaning.

This is a sound coming from the activated radio device.

"Ground calling air, is this the Shrike?"

He picked up the microphone to answer the question.

"The Shrike requests to land."

"No, please have a speed race with our pilots before landing."

So that's what it meant. Fang Wen finally understood the pilot's hand gesture.

The top speed of a biplane is only about 240 km/h, while the Shrike can reach a top speed of 380 km/h.

The two are not even in the same league, yet they still want to compete. Fang Wen has no idea what the other party is thinking.

I replied immediately.

"Understood, let's start the competition now."

After saying that, the plane suddenly accelerated, leaving the other party far behind.

The opposing biplanes, despite their maximum effort to catch up, were unable to close the distance between them; instead, they drifted further apart.

After the race ended, Fang Wen requested to land again, and this time the ground crew agreed.

The plane landed at Parlam Airport and stopped under the guidance of ground staff.

Then another plane landed on the runway; it was the biplane fighter jet.

It stopped next to the Shrike, and after the pilot got off, he greeted Fang Wen.

"Hello, our race is unfair, you jumped the gun."

Fang Wen, carrying a canvas bag, came down the boarding stairs and replied, "It is somewhat unfair."

What he meant was that the Shrike was much faster than its opponent, and the race was a bit unfair. With the Shrike's speed, there was no need for it to jump the gun; it could catch up even if the opponent was only half a beat away.

The other party, however, thought that Fang Wen was admitting that the false start was unfair, and immediately smiled, feeling as if they had won even though they had lost.

He extended his hand proactively, saying, "My name is Raja, and I'm a technical officer in the Indian Air Force. I'll be taking care of you."

Fang Wen shook hands with him, but was surprised to find that Delhi was not receiving guests from the US and UK, but from a local.

Then he asked:

"Hello, my name is Fang Wen, a pilot employed by Boeing. According to the agreement for this long-haul flight, I will be received by a British official. Where is the others?"

"I'm sorry, there's something very important in Delhi that he has to deal with. I'll take care of you."

Raja loved to talk and rattled off a whole bunch of things, letting Fang Wen know what was going on.

After the plane landed at Delhi airport, Boeing arranged a product demonstration for the Indian Air Force, which was only established last year.

The Indian Air Force, which was only established a year ago, currently only has some old biplane fighters and urgently needs to replace them with higher-performance aircraft.

Therefore, they simply sent Raja to be in charge of receiving Fang Wen.

Who knew this guy would come up with an aerial racing welcome event?

Raja continued his rambling, and he could go on and on as long as he wasn't interrupted.

Having understood the situation, Fang Wen asked, "Can we begin introducing the aircraft's performance now?"

“Oh, okay, go ahead and say it.” Raja finally stopped.

Unlike his presentations in China, Fang Wen described the P26's performance in this presentation by focusing entirely on its strengths and omitting any negative aspects, effectively serving as a Boeing aircraft presenter.

Raja listened attentively but didn't ask any questions until the end, when he finally spoke:
"We have a solution: could we ship the plane over first, and we'll pay a partial deposit, with the full amount due later?"

Fang Wen felt a sense of déjà vu at these words; it seemed that Indian businessmen would also use this approach in future foreign trade.

Anyway, just get the goods first, and when it comes time to pay, things will be vague.

If this business were Fang Wen's own, he would definitely refuse.

But that's not the case.

He feigned hesitation and asked, "How many do you need?"

“Twenty,” Raja stated without hesitation, his tone very certain.

It was more than twice as much as the Nationalist government wanted to buy.

Fang Wen replied, "I can only give you an answer tomorrow; I need to send a telegram back. Can you take me to my lodgings now? By the way, can you arrange for guards to watch over this plane?"

Once Fang Wen heard that the airplane sale was settled, his other requirements were no longer a problem.

Raja summoned the airport guards and arranged for someone to watch the plane. Then, he happily took Fang Wen to the airport accommodation.

Upon arrival, he thoughtfully asked, "Let me take you out to eat; the food here is absolutely unforgettable."

"Thank you, but I brought food," Fang Wen said decisively.

"And what about drinking water?"

"Also."

"Okay, see you tomorrow."

Raja left with regret.

After Raja left, Fang Wen closed the door.

I checked my watch; it was only 3 p.m.

Based on a 2.5-hour time difference, it's 5:30 PM in Shanghai.

In other words, we have to wait another two hours before it's time to send the message.

It's a good time to do something else.

Fang Wen took out some medicated oil and mugwort rolls from his canvas bag, applied the medicated oil to his body, and then lit the mugwort to take precautions against mosquitoes.

Then, he took out the pastries his wife had prepared from his canvas bag.

This time, we changed the variety.

Rice balls.

Fang Wen took one out, unwrapped it from the lotus leaf, and took a bite.

The cooked glutinous rice wraps around crispy fried dough sticks, making it savory and delicious.

The glutinous rice balls in Shanghai are not wrapped in lotus leaves. This is a new product created by Kuang Mingzhu by combining lotus leaf-wrapped rice from Guangdong with glutinous rice balls.

Since it's a new product, it's not just one flavor, so Fang Wen opened another one.

This time it's Cantonese style, with salted pork bits, roast goose, char siu, and shrimp.

Glutinous rice is packed with protein and is rich in energy.

After eating two rice balls, Fang Wen felt a little full.

He put the rest back into the food box, rewrapped it in oil paper, opened the leather bag, and took a big gulp of water.

Then came the planning of tomorrow's flight.

Fang Wen plans not to spend the night in Karachi tomorrow, but to fly directly to Tehran that same day.

Delhi to Karachi is 1000 kilometers, Karachi to Tehran is 2000 kilometers.

Flying 3,000 kilometers in a day is not impossible, but the main problem is that there is a layover on the route from Karachi to Tehran.

However, information regarding the specific transit airport has not yet been obtained.

This requires contacting liaisons in Tehran and Karachi in the evening to see who arranged the transit airport.

Fang Wen looked at the map, occasionally taking out a pen and ruler to make calculations, and time passed by unnoticed.

An hour later, Fang Wen got up on time, took out his telegraph machine, and sent a message to Neil.

"The Indian Air Force has proposed to purchase twenty fighter jets, but payment needs to be delayed."

Whether the telegram succeeds or not is no longer Fang Wen's concern. He has only fulfilled his duty to convey information, and he has no say in any trouble that may arise later.

Neil, however, was very interested in this and sent a telegram a dozen minutes later.

"Tell them we will send a salesperson over to discuss the matter."

After ending his telegram exchange with Neil, Fang Wen adjusted the frequency and contacted Karachi and Tehran.

The telegram requested a flight of 3000 kilometers to be completed in one day and inquired about transit airports.

The transit airport was handled by a contact in Tehran, who provided a location name and coordinates (29°06'N, 58°21'E).

`29°06'N，58°21'E`这个坐标也就是地球上北纬29度6分、东经58度21分的位置。

Fang Wen needs to mark the location on the map before he can transit and land there.

He changed the map.

That was a large map with latitude and longitude coordinates.

The grid above was all handmade by mapmakers.

Using this map, Fang Wen quickly found the location.

Bam.

With the map coordinates, Fang Wen finally felt more confident. He could use his mechanical perception ability to pinpoint the location while flying.

Overnight, the mosquitoes along the Ganges were even more numerous than in Kolkata, and even medicated oil and mugwort were not very effective.

Fang Wen was eager to leave this place as soon as possible so that he could complete the 3000-kilometer journey during the day.

At 8:10, Raja arrived.

Fang Wen informed the other party that Boeing would send a sales representative, which made Raja very happy.

The rest was done quickly.

The plane was fully fueled and had some engine coolant on hand for backup. Fang Wen took off again.

Because of the tight schedule, Fang Wen was no longer in a leisurely piloting mode, and the plane's speed was increased significantly.

We arrived in Karachi more than three hours later.

North of Karachi Port lies Jinnah Airport. After contacting the ground, Fang Wen landed at the airport.

Because the arrangements had been made the previous night, the British personnel waiting at the airport immediately arranged for refueling.

After two hours of rest and adjustment to ensure the aircraft engine cooled down and prevent metal fatigue, Fang Wencai took off.

Starting from Karachi and heading upstream along the Arabian Gulf, Fang Wen began searching for Bam's exact location.

After determining its location, the plane flew away at high speed.

After another three-hour flight, we finally arrived in Bam.

It is a plain, and there are large areas of ancient buildings.

But where will we land?
(End of this chapter)