Xu Yongling, a well-known test pilot in China, posted on Weibo on May 29, 2016 to find the Yi sheep herding baby "Xiaolei" who saved his life 30 years ago. He said that without the love of the people, there would be no development of the army, and he longed to express this emotion that had been pent up for 30 years in person.
Xu Yongling is a distinguished instructor of the China Test Pilot College, a member of the Air Force Theory Expert Database, and a senior member of the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has received numerous feats during his lifetime, personally presided over major test flights in the history of the Air Force, and published many important theoretical concepts.
This Weibo has attracted widespread attention from netizens, who have praised Xu Yongling's search for "Xiaolei".
Xu Yongling, a pilot who persistently pursues the dream of blue sky, his achievements stem from his love for flying. However, without the guidance of the Yi sheep herding baby thirty years ago, his dream might have been lost in the mountains.
Xu Yongling was born into a military family in Hangzhou, and under the influence of his older brother when he was a child, he developed a strong interest in flying. He met a pilot in the compound, and his desire to fly led him to seize the opportunity to ask the pilot for advice.
Although the pilot could not answer in detail, Xu Yongling mistakenly thought that as long as he could run 10,000 meters, he could become a pilot. So, he started running around West Lake, hoping to achieve this goal.
However, the eight-year-old did not run 10,000 meters, and after only a few hundred meters, he was exhausted and out of breath. But he did not give up because of this, but firmly believed that as long as he kept running, he would one day run 10,000 meters and realize his dream.
Xu Yongling has had a deep passion for the 10,000-meter run since junior high school, but he was eliminated in the physical fitness test before graduation. It turns out that the standard of recruiting is not only as simple as the 10,000-meter run, but also includes many other conditions.
Even so, Xu Yongling did not give up his dream, he firmly believed that his height and other conditions had met the requirements of Zhaofei, so he participated in the recruitment assessment again.
Although he successfully passed the preliminary examination, he was unfortunately eliminated again due to the limited number of places. Although the dream of flying was deeply ingrained in his bones, he chose to move on.
Xu Yongling has shown excellent learning ability since he was a child, and was awarded the title of "Three Good Students" in Hangzhou, and was successfully admitted to Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where he became an alumnus with Yuan Jiajun, an aerospace expert.
However, he failed in his second flight test and realized the difficulty of the profession of pilot. He realized that running 10,000 meters alone was not enough to become a pilot, which was misleading.
After entering the aviation academy, Xu Yongling still maintained hope for his dream of becoming a pilot. However, it wasn't until his sophomore year that he had the opportunity to learn to fly at the Qingdao Glider School.
There, he and Yuan Jiajun became classmates in the same study group. After ten glider flights, experienced instructors have been optimistic that he can become an excellent pilot.
However, despite his dream and talent for flying, he never had the opportunity to become a pilot, which filled his heart with bitterness. He lamented that although he had the dream and talent to fly, he was never able to realize his desire to become a pilot.
Xu Yongling stood out among hundreds of applicants and became one of the nine lucky people to be recruited to enter the university. Walking out of the school gate, he put on the green jersey of the Air Force, and the real challenge has just begun.
Recruiting to enlist in the Air Force means that he will face strict selection and elimination. Although he was accepted as a pilot, it does not mean that he has succeeded, and he still faces a very high elimination rate to become a real pilot.
Compared with pilots who are directly admitted to high school, pilots with a college degree have certain advantages in cultural literacy. Air Force pilots need to have a strong understanding and independent thinking skills, and often require a college education.
However, for pilots who have already passed the selection, their ability to learn should not be a major factor in their elimination. Fitness training, spinning and other adaptation training in various flight conditions, although important, are not the link with the highest elimination rate.
The flying experience of a real fighter jet is very different from that of flying in an airplane, and many trained pilots are unable to adapt to it. After a year of on-the-fly training, many pilots are unable to become fighter pilots due to psychological problems.
But these trainers are people with expertise. Although Xu Yongling did not have the opportunity to become a fighter pilot, he trained with 28 pilots at the Air Force Sixth Aviation School and was the first student to fly solo in all the training subjects of the first and fifth aviation courses.
Therefore, after observing Xu Yongling's flight ten times, the glider instructor firmly believed that he would become an excellent pilot, and his flight psychology was reassuring.
During his service in the Air Force, Xu Yongling studied in an aviation training regiment in Yuanmou, Yunnan. On February 19, 1987, he flew the Jian-6 twin aircraft formation for the first time to fly at ultra-high altitude and supersonic speed.
Such a flight needs to be carried out at an altitude of 10,000 meters at a speed of more than a thousand kilometers per hour. However, before this flight, he had only flown the J-6 alone for twenty hours.
In order to ensure the success of the flight, Xu Yongling adjusted his physical condition to the best. After taking off, he and the long plane piloted by Deputy Regiment Commander Zhu Guangcai successfully climbed to an altitude of 10,000 meters together.
In that airspace, other formations of the training regiment were also training, and through in-flight calls, they could all hear the sound of each aircraft in the air training.
In the two-plane formation mission at an altitude of 10,000 meters, Xu Yongling tried to fly for the first time and heard the command of "360 start afterburner", but misheard it as "300", he accelerated according to the answer of "300 understands", and successfully pushed the plane to supersonic speed.
During this period, the captain and wingman of the twin formation maintained a synchronized speed.
Xu Yongling made a mistake during the flight, which caused the distance between the wingman and the long plane to suddenly get closer. He tried to correct his mistake with a deceleration measure, but it was too late.
At the critical moment when the wingman was about to collide with the long plane, Xu Yongling pushed the joystick violently, trying to make the wingman dive down to avoid the long plane in front of him. Although he took emergency rescue measures, the plane had a supersonic scrape, and the result was very serious.
Xu Yongling's plane broke its wings, and the entire plane rolled rapidly in the air, the dust in the cockpit spread like mist, and thick white smoke rose from the outside of the plane.
The huge inertia threw Xu Yongling to the roof of the cabin, and the plane was obviously unable to be rescued. Xu Yongling tried to skydive, but after some struggle, he eventually hooked the strap of the driver's seat with his foot, put himself back in the seat, and successfully pressed the ejection button.
The moment he left the cabin, Xu Yongling's consciousness was slightly blurred for a few tenths of a second. In the face of the challenge of 10,000 meters in altitude, pilots who have not experienced long-term and arduous training will find it difficult to quickly regain their consciousness and lose the opportunity to save themselves.
In an emergency, Xu Yongling first needs to get rid of the seat before he can activate the parachute. However, when the chair was separated, the parachute did not open automatically. This is determined by the 4,000-meter altitude set by the automatic opening, and Xu Yongling is free-falling at a speed of 60 meters per second, and it will take some time to reach the 4,000-meter altitude.
Xu Yongling did not wait for the automatic parachute opening, his reaction speed had been improved through many trainings, and he immediately opened the parachute manually. By the time the parachute was successfully opened, Xu Yongling had risen to an altitude of 8,000 meters, and the time it took to land was about two minutes.
Xu Yongling raised his wrist to confirm the time, but the case was already broken. He floated in the air, but his heart fell into an endless abyss. He was worried about the situation of Zhu Guangcai, the co-pilot of the long plane, and if his comrades died due to his mistakes, he would be shrouded in mental distress for the rest of his life.
At this moment, his pilot's eyesight was as sharp as an eagle, his heart was beating faster, and his thoughts were full of thoughts: if he watched Deputy Regiment Commander Zhu Guangcai fall because his parachute could not be opened, he could not imagine how much psychological trauma he would endure.
Fortunately, not long after, a white flower bloomed above the black dot, and the parachute of Deputy Head Zhu Guangcai was successfully opened.
Xu Yongling immediately perked up, quickly adjusted his parachute, and approached Zhu Guangcai, the deputy head of the regiment. The situation at the landing site and Zhu Guangcai's physical condition were unknown, and the high-altitude environment was not as he wished, no matter how he adjusted his parachute, the distance between him and Zhu Guangcai became farther and farther away until he completely disappeared from sight.
Zhu Guangcai could not be seen, and Xu Yongling could already clearly observe the situation on the ground. Below is a rolling mountain forest, and the slope of the landing area is about 60 degrees, which is difficult for parachuting, and if you are not careful, you may break your leg or roll down the cliff.
But for a skydiver like Xu Yongling, dealing with this kind of terrain is a piece of cake.
He landed safely halfway up the mountain in a standard landing position, concealed his umbrella bag and made a mark, and then headed to the top of the mountain, intending to see the whole situation and find out the direction of the people.
Although according to the regulations, the parachute bag cannot be discarded at will, some people say that training a pilot requires a huge investment of material, financial and time resources, and it is reasonable for the pilot to temporarily give up the parachute bag to protect himself when he encounters danger.
When he reached the top of the mountain and saw the scene in front of him, his heart became extremely heavy. He realizes that he has landed in the primeval forest of Yuanmou, and although he has been specially trained to survive, he is not sure if he will be able to make it out of this forest.
Xu Yongling followed the direction of the sun and moved forward unswervingly so as not to get lost in the primeval forest. He walked a long way up the ridge to the top of a slope to observe the environment, but could not find any signs of life.
He didn't dare to stop and rest, because the sun was already setting in the west, and the sky in Yuanmou, Yunnan Province, was about to enter the tropics, but the terrain here was a plateau, and the daytime temperature in February was only about fifteen degrees, and it was even more difficult to distinguish the direction at night.
If he stayed on this mountain overnight, Xu Yongling's clothes would be thin and he would not be able to keep out the cold at all. In addition, his physical strength has been exhausted, he is physically and mentally exhausted, his face has been frostbitten at high altitude, and there are many scratches on his body, and his physical condition is very weak.
If there is a dangerous situation such as hypothermia at night, he may not be able to make it out of the forest alive.
After six hours of continuous walking, Xu Yongling still couldn't see the edge of the forest. His stomach was rumbling with hunger, and his throat was smoking. However, he did not find water along the way, and even when he saw the water in the potholes, he did not dare to drink it, for fear that the unclean water might make him sick.
Although the dew, rain, or mountain springs in the wild are relatively safe, Xu Yongling's time and space cannot find these water sources. The sun was about to set, and Xu Yongling felt very anxious.
At this moment, Xu Yongling's eyes suddenly lit up. He noticed obvious knife marks on a tree branch, indicating that someone had passed by. Xu Yongling couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart and began to shout loudly.
After a few shouts, a timid little head appeared behind a big tree, it was a little boy of eight or nine years old dressed in Yi costume, and he looked at Xu Yongling in confusion.
It's a blessing in the middle of nowhere! Xu Yongling looked at it and saw that the little boy in front of him was the rescuer he needed.
I see, I also followed the little boy through such a journey. The little boy did not hesitate at all, and led Xu Yongling to a small earthen house. When Xu Yongling saw the crowd, he didn't immediately go to the village office, because he was hungry and tired and wanted to recover his strength.
Although the two of them could not communicate verbally, they communicated with gestures, and the little boy quickly understood what Xu Yongling meant, poured a glass of water, and then quickly went to make a fire to cook.
Soon, the little boy brought a bowl of egg fried rice, although the brown rice was a little hard, Xu Yongling ate it very deliciously.
Xu Yongling left an eternal delicious memory in his heart, and he was moved by that bowl of egg fried rice. He was intoxicated by the good smell, and lay down and fell asleep. When I woke up, only a few minutes had passed.
The little boy beckoned to him and led him to the village office. Xu Yongling's gratitude to the little boy cannot be measured in money, and he realizes that the family's egg fried rice is also obtained through hard work, and he cannot let his benefactor fall into trouble because of his own needs.
From the little boy's residence to the village office, they walked for nearly an hour, and fortunately, Xu Yongling recovered some strength, otherwise this journey would have been a painful test for him.
After arriving at the village office, Xu Yongling was surprised to find that there were many people in need of help in this village office. He learned that the family was still willing to help others despite their difficult times, and he was impressed by this spirit.
Xu Yongling received a notice from the army that he needed to leave as soon as possible, so he didn't have time to learn more about the little boy's situation and left the village office. After he saw the people of the unit, he learned that Zhu Guangcai, the deputy commander of the regiment, had landed thirteen kilometers away from him and had returned to the unit.
Xu Yongling immediately went to the hospital to visit Zhu Guangcai, the deputy head of the regiment, and knelt down on one knee to admit his mistake. Deputy Regiment Commander Zhu Guangcai, who was lying on the hospital bed, did not blame him, and his wife also hurriedly helped Xu Yongling up and comforted him: "This kind of understanding is very important for pilots during the training period, otherwise it will put psychological baggage on their backs and affect them to become excellent pilots." ”
Soon after, Xu Yongling left Yunnan and went elsewhere to continue his training, eventually becoming a qualified test pilot. Because the accident involved secrecy, the test flight of the fighter has also been kept secret, until he retired, he looked for the little boy through Weibo.
Xu Yongling saved a little boy 30 years ago, when he heard that the locals said that the people in that village were surnamed Lei, so he called the little boy "Xiao Lei" on Weibo. Netizens were moved by the fate of Xu Yongling and Xiao Lei, and for a while, the Internet was full of news looking for Xiao Lei.
Yuanmou** and the local air force quickly noticed Xu Yongling's Weibo and sent people to the village where Xu Yongling was received back then. After inquiry, I learned that "Xiaolei" was named Yin Zhenghai, who was mistaken by Xu Yongling because of malnutrition and short stature when he was a child.
Eight or nine years old. The fact that he saved a pilot is known to the elderly people in the area.
He once went to school to learn Chinese, and by chance, he sent Xu Yongling to the village office, but because he was late, he spent the night at his aunt's house.
Xu Yongling found him in 2016, when he already had two lovely daughters, and he proudly told them that he once saved a pilot, but the daughters only laughed at him for bragging.
In the end, Xu Yongling got Yin Zhenghai's whereabouts and quickly went to see him. On June 4, 2016, after some tossing and turning, Xu Yongling finally met Yin Zhenghai.
What makes him feel relieved is that Yin Zhenghai has local chickens, ducks, cattle and sheep at home, as well as a new farm vehicle, and lives a very good life.
That day, the two prepared a table of home-cooked food, paired with a few glasses of wine, and chatted for a long time. Although 30 years have passed, they are only meeting for the first time, but when they meet again, they are still very excited, like old friends who have been separated for a long time, and it seems that there are endless stories to tell.
At the time of separation, if Yin Zhenghai hadn't taken him out of the mountains, I am afraid that there would be one less award-winning test pilot in the world, and China would have one less military theory expert, let alone a follow-up story.