BEIJING, August 9 -- Recently, several flight instructors of the Chinese PLA Naval Aviation University (NAU) successively completed the night-time arrested landing operations in their J-15 fighter jets on the aircraft carrier Liaoning, which qualified them with the night-time take-off and deck-landing certification, and entitled the NAU to give lessons on both nighttime and daytime ship-borne fighter jet operations.
According to a carrier-borne fighter jet landing commander, the biggest difficulty in nighttime landing lies in the poor visibility. Not being able to use the ambient environment as sight reference, the pilot has to rely on the lighting signals to land in designated area, which poses a serious challenge to their skills and courage.
Based on a specialized study of the nighttime flight training and commanding modes, the NAU worked out a scientific training plan. The flight instructors have also made meticulous preparations in lighting signal identification, equipment use and emergency response through flight theories courses, ground exercise and simulated flight.
It is learned that the daytime flight certification for the new batch of ship-borne fighter pilot cadets has also been carried out this time. All the cadets and instructors accomplished their targets at one stroke, creating a record in the number of certificated pilots and instructors at one time.