An Interview with Sully

I just heard this on my local NPR station.

The host of ‘Forum’, Michael Krasny, will be interviewing Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger on his show Monday morning during his second hour of his program, at 10am PDT (6pm GMT) on 11/30/09. Those of you with iTunes should be able to catch it live, and MP3 downloads and podcasts will be available shortly afterwards.

Just a heads up if anyone would like to catch it. This is a call-in program as well, so you can call up to ask questions/make comments.

kqed.org/radio/programs/forum/

EDIT: Those without iTunes can visit here to find various ways to listen in.

BL.

Would much rather hear him interviewed by Howard Stern. :open_mouth:

“So, Sully, How many times a day do you…”

“Have you ever done it in the forward lav?”

“C’mon, the world wants to know, how big is your…?”

Well, Krasny did get out one clean (albeit bad) joke:

Krasny: One listener sent in an email asking if you’ve ever had a Sully Martini? Two shots of Grey Goose and a splash of water!

In all honesty, though, Sully did go into quite some detail on how he configured the plane, factoring in various formulae for kinetic energy, pitch, bank, and how FBW actually makes flying a plane harder than non-FBW and conventional aircrafts. It’s actually worth the listen.

He has a book out as well, and from the talk they had on it, it sounds like a great read.

BL.

As I posted in the “Airliner down in the Hudson” thread, I got home last Wednesday and had the book waiting on me - an early birthday present from my girlfriend. I finished it yesterday afternoon and have to say all in all, it is a really good book and definitely something I would recommend to anyone interested in aviation. I know the FA forum users are split in how they view him and the events that took place that day, but I really like Capt. Sullenberger, the story of his career and how he ended up behind the controls. He is very quick to share the praise given to all of the crew with him that day and comes off incredibly humble - just a pilot doing his job. Regardless of what you think of him, he’s definitely helped give the general public a renewed confidence in flying as well as expose the pressures that pilot’s face in their careers. Too bad all anyone remembers now is the NWA pilot’s and what they were doing (or lack thereof) in the cockpit.

Very true. the NWA incident really did take away from that comfortness that he restored. He made mention of that in the interview as well. But I didn’t know that he also had 2 Masters Degrees. The guy sounds incredibly smart, and yes, very humble even on the radio. He edified the FAs, Skiles, the whole lot… even the passengers on the flight, as they were used to the whole flying thing (he mentioned that the LGA-CLT run was primarily full of businessmen).

what I didn’t realize, is that he is a local guy here. He’s from my area (Danville is less than an hour’s drive from here), which probably brought on the chance for the interview. Obviously, he was promoting the book, and based on what I’ve heard, it’s full of principles that a lot of people lack nowadays.

BL.

Exactly. The subtitle is “My Search for What Really Matters” and that is the main purpose behind the book - his life experiences and how that molded him into what he is today. He does mention his masters degrees in the book, as well as being given the award for the top airman upon graduating from the USAF Academy, so obviously he is a very skilled and knowledgeable pilot. Above all though, like I mentioned, he just comes off extremely humble and gives much of the praise to the attendant, Skiles and the ATC handling his flight that day. He mentions over and over that he was just doing his job - what he was trained to do. Had the same thing happened with another pilot with the controls, hopefully the same outcome would have happened, but I can’t help but to think that he was the right person for the right job.