By Han Cheng
At the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition (AirShow China 2022), China's largest air show, many pilots came under the spotlight together with advanced weapons and equipment. Captain Chen Jiale assigned to an aviation division with the air force under the PLA Southern Theater Command is one of them. As a sunny, handsome and confident young man flying the H-6K bomber codenamed "God of War", Chen Jiale has garnered countless fans during the event.
"This flight covered more than 5,000 kilometers and lasted 7 hours. I saw beautiful Nansha Islands under the wing..." Speaking of the longest flight training in his military career, Chen Jiale, who has always been calm and composed, could not conceal his excitement. "In combination with fighter jets, early-warning aircraft and other equipment, we have jointly carried out live-fire drills in subjects like long-range raid, fast maneuver, and systematic strike, and explored many new ways to fight systematically and win," he introduced.
Since being assigned to the aviation force after graduation in 2019, Chen Jiale has maintained a state of war preparedness all year round. In just over three years, Chen has grown into a bomber pilot, winning admiration of many comrades-in-arms who speak highly of his genius in flying. In face of praise and compliment, he has kept sober. "The battle post brings me pressure and motivation, and youth takes for me more efforts to make, more burdens to carry, and more weaknesses to strengthen," he said.
Chen is excellent in physical exercises. He can run 3000 meters in 11 minutes and do 30 pull-ups at one time. For a pilot, the record definitely ranks among the best, but Chen Jiale is not satisfied. "As long-range training gets more and more frequent, the pilot has to be stronger and stronger physically," he said. To that end, he has formulated a fitness training plan for himself and gone to the gym whenever time permits.
Chen Jiale's work experience is also brilliant. He has passed the pilot transition training for fighter jet with information upgrading, served as a staff officer in the air force training department, and taken part in more than 10 joint confrontation exercises and patrol missions. And he never stopped making efforts. During the limited spare time, he rarely rested, but always concentrated on studying flight principles, analyzing aircraft parameters, and studying training and tactic methods.
Once in an exercise, the elements had to carry out successive confrontations involving multiple types of aircraft and multiple subjects, while completing the task of target strikes with multi-type missiles. After reading the plan, even many experienced pilots got cold feet, because the conversion of attack and defense has to be very fast, featuring extremely high intensity. At that time, Chen first took the post as a crew leader, and he felt double pressure, since all his crew members had never engaged in such new subjects and new types of ammunition.
"As long as you dare to fight, you have a chance to win," Chen Jiale and his comrade-in-arms said to themselves. They got familiar with the performance of the equipment and ammunition through multiple channels including by contacting manufacturers, learning from other experienced brother units, and consulting experts and teachers in colleges and universities, and other means. Meanwhile, they made use of the rest time at night to explore the tactics and countermeasures, so occupied that they often forgot to eat and sleep. On the day of the exercise, Chen Jiale together with his crew members made a great success and hit all the targets, ranking first among all the participating bomber forces.
"There are still many young captains in Air Force’s troops who are growing at high speed," said Chen Jiale modestly when speaking of his achievements.
As Chen Jiale has said, with the continuous promotion of live-fire training in recent years, a number of young pilots of the brigade have participated in the exercises and drills in a regular manner, with their ability constantly improved and their vision broadened by challenging themselves time after time.
The picture shows Chen Jiale in front of an H-6K bomber.
The picture shows Chen Jiale in the cockpit.