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“Sully: Miracle On
The Hudson”
by Wesley May
As a former Navy Pilot, I really love this
movie about Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger,
a career military and airline pilot who has
vaulted into the highest level of American pilots
ever. For openers, Sully’s experience was in
airplanes operating from land-based airports,
but in this movie, he is challenged to fly a landbased
airliner onto the Hudson River with
the additional handicap of having no engines
powering the plane … an almost impossible
storyline!
Fortunately, the pedigree of this movie is
driven by its absolutely impeccable genealogy
led by DIRECTOR Clint Eastwood and starring
Tom Hanks as Sully. There were some critical
complaints, from hyper-sensitive, bureaucratic
National Transportation
Safety Board members,
about how its investigators
were treated in the dramatic
script by Screenwriter
Todd Komarnicki. But,
Komarnicki defends
his script vigorously,
by maintaining, in an
Internet interview, that
there was no “alleged ill
will” written in the script
describing the activities of
the investigators. He stated
that there was no pilot
error to be found, but that
didn’t prohibit investigators
from looking. And Hanks’
performance in Sully’s
unaccustomed pilot’s role is
an undeniable tour de force!
I consider SULLY to be a classic Clint
Eastwood movie … since it certainly carries an
omniscient Eastwood imprimatur. As a director,
Eastwood tends to introduce his creative
intentions early and often. And he does so
masterfully here. Since this is a pilot’s movie,
he gives you his quintessential motive early …
when the youthful Sully is only 16 years old. In
an early “flash back” scene with his instructor
pilot, Sully is informed that he has now qualified
as a real pilot who may solo in the biplane
trainer whenever he wishes! A real highpoint
in Sully’s career. The following words define the
magnitude of his official accreditation to pilot
status, but also defines the movie’s basic theme:
Instructor pilot’s guidance: “Pilots never
stop acquiring knowledge. You’ll make mistakes.
Everyone does! Just learn from it! NEVER
FORGET, no matter what’s happening! … FLY
THE AIRPLANE!”
And all motivated flight instructors should
always emphasize those words, which I wisely
obeyed for almost 30 years as a Navy pilot!
So now, let’s get underway with the story …
After earning my Navy Wings of Gold, my
first operational assignment was to a SEAPLANE
squadron, Patrol Squadron 45, (VP-45) based
in BERMUDA … GREAT HOME PORT, but
not exactly the plane I had hoped to fly … the
lumbering Martin P5M seaplane. But it turned
out to be the best experience and outcome I
would ever get, because I ended up as third pilot
(and navigator) on Flight Crew 1 of CDR Alan Lee,
the squadron’s new CO after I had been aboard
the squadron for just a few months. He was the
consummate personification of professional
excellence. He demanded much (ironically,
many junior officers thought too much), but the
quality of his leadership demanded imitation,
so he quickly became my indispensable model
for success in the Navy!
The cockpit was his classroom, and class was
always in session. He taught me much more than
I had ever anticipated, both as a pilot and as a
naval officer. He is now retired in Green Valley,
AZ, but we continue to visit him whenever we
visited our condo in Scottsdale. That condo has
now been sold, but we still visit him whenever
we head west! Like Sully’s instructor pilot, he
stressed “anticipating potential problems”
as the “essential antidote” for substandard
performance. So he taught his subordinates how
to execute all missions aggressively, but as safely
as possible!
One of the most significant things CDR
Lee taught me was the following skill-set for
executing water landings, which he expected
every pilot to execute on every approach and
landing:
• Early establishment of a nose-high attitude
BEFORE beginning the actual descent to
accommodate and maintain flight at a safe but
slower approach speed and compensating for
the seaplane pilot’s degraded depth perception,
especially at night. Since the seaplane had to be
flown onto the water rather than employing the
rounded off, flared approach path when landing
on a runway, which requires pilot’s sharp depth
perception!
• Adjusting power as necessary during the
descent to maintain the desired rate of descent
approaching the water’s touchdown point (to
reduce landing impact without compromising
fight path).
• Ensure wings are level at touchdown (which
is assisted by a structural float under each wing
tip) so that there will be no “twisting moment’
on fuselage after water touchdown to maintain
fuselage integrity to keep plane afloat after
water landing and to maintain a straight postlanding
track over the water.
• Reverse engines promptly after touchdown
to stop aircraft quickly while maintaining the
landing heading to restrain lateral fuselage
stresses. (Not available to Sully since engines
were not operating.)
NOTE: As I watched the movie,
I concluded that I had actually
seen Sully’s PERFECT seaplane
landing, which ensured safety of
all “SOULS ON BOARD.” He had
executed what I had been trained
to do and then practiced under
my CO’s expert monitoring.
Chronology of Sully’s Flight (to
emphasize short time available!)
3:27pm, “The plane is at an
altitude of 3,000 feet directly
above The Bronx and traveling
at 250mph when it encounters
a flock of Canada geese. The
birds, traveling at about 50mph,
are sucked into both of the
plane’s two jet engines, which
flame out and fail immediately,
though miraculously they do not
disintegrate.”
3:28pm, “Sullenberger quickly considers
his options. (Rejects the closest airports),
“glide back to LaGuardia is not a viable
option.” Re: Teterboro, NJ …“ We can’t do it.”
Advises controller… “WE’RE GONNA BE IN
THE HUDSON." Sullenberger begins his glide
towards the Hudson. The only major vertical
obstacle in his way is the George Washington
Bridge, which Sullenberger had assessed earlier
could be cleared, is cleared with about 900 feet
to spare.”
3:30pm,“Brace for contact.” (Sully’s
only announcement to passengers.) Flight
attendants: “Brace! Brace! Heads down! Stay
down!”
3:31pm, Ditch on Hudson: “With its nose
raised and traveling at 150 mph,” Sully executes
perfectly an unpowered ditching procedure
onto the Hudson River … “just three and a half
minutes after its take-off from LaGuardia. “Sully
gives the evacuate command, and the crew
begins to remove the passengers, including one
in a wheelchair. There is no panic, and some
passengers stay inside the now gently drifting
airliner to hand life vests to those already on
Photo Credit, Wikipedia.
No. 137 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. p.27