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| Photo courtesy of Bryan Raley |
I had meant to take some time to post this after Oshkosh, but it kept slipping my mind. So here it is, a little late, but still effective. My first evening after I arrived at Osh this year was the Young Eagles banquet. If you follow my blog, you will know that I am a big fan of the program. But the main event to this evening was our friend and fellow EAA chapter 301 member, Rudy Kniese (pictured in the center), was honored as YE event coordinator of the year! Very cool and a nice accomplishment for Rudy...you can read here Young Eagle Day what I think of Rudy's YE operations.
The surprise of the night was our VIP seating (up close and personal) at the YE banquet (which was free) and the very nice setup that EAA had for us. Full buffet style dinner (that was tasty), with an open bar and bottles of complimentary wine at our tables!! Sheesh, I wasnt expecting that, but sure wasnt complaining! It was a packed house, not an empty chair in the place...approx. 900-1000 people all seated in the Eagle hangar at the museum. What a great setting, I very much enjoyed this evening.
This brings me to the title of my post...'Sully' or Capt. Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger You may remember him as the Captain of the ill-fated Hudson ditching flight. Sully, along with Jeff Skiles, his first officer on the flight are now chairmen of the Young Eagles, taking over the reins from Harrison Ford.
It was funny I kept joking to our group, that as the evening progressed, Mr. Skiles was doing ALL of the talking and I kept thinking. Hmm, maybe Mr. Sullenberger is not much of a public speaker and that is why he is being so quiet?
He finally ended the night by taking the podium and speaking. And boy, was I dead wrong, he was a very eloquent, powerful speaker. He gave about a ten minute speech...not long but very direct with a great message.
He spoke about "doing the hard work" in training. That when the time came to ditch, it was so successful because he and his crew had done the hard work leading up to that moment and that made all the difference. It reminded me of my days playing sports, working your tail off at practice so that when the lights go on you are prepared for the pressure of the moment. All great players know this and I can guarantee what you see on game day is the result of doing the hard work when no one is watching.
Well, the lights went on and everyone was watching when they lost their engines because of a bird strike over the Hudson...and they did what they were expected to do. Some call them heroes, I'm not one in that camp nor does Mr. Sullenberger himself believe they are heroes. I think hero worship in today's day and age is quite overblown and media driven. I believe they did their job flawlessly under difficult circumstances and should be applauded for that, but it is what every pilot is trained to do from day one. The question is, can you perform flawlessly when the lights are on?? When you are staring possible death in the face, can you keep your cool and fly the airplane? No pilot can be sure until he is tested in that fashion, but we can all strive to be that professional in our flying.
In summary, one last thing I wanted to add. They replayed the cockpit conversation just before impact. Two things struck me when listening to it...#1, there was absolutely no panic in anyone's voice. And #2, Mr. Sullenberger practiced CRM (Crew Resource Management) right until the end when the last transmission you hear is when he turns to Mr. Skiles and asks one last time, "Any ideas?" and he gets the reply, "unfortunately not". Always use your 'crew' in an emergency...even if they are a non-pilot, you might be surprised how they can help if called upon.
