The thing is, the event that made Sully famous is widely known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” … so now we can definitively say that the press made a miracle out of something that the guy who pulled it off calls “following my training.”

This actually seems like a book I may read. Very much out of my normal genre, but I’ve seen captain Sully speak a few times about labor conditions in the airline industry (with obvious wider implications) and been rather impressed with his good sense and courage to speak out about.

Being a pilot means you can fly an airplane and isn’t a great indicator of much more. But there is are some correlations. Commercial pilots have to be very disciplined (on the job at least) and good ones have a rather old fashioned, in a good way, sense of responsibility. They also have to be able to do more arithmetic and have a well above average knowledge of mechanics (physics) and meteorology… an odd combination of “I know” vs “I have an educated guess which may well be wrong” disciplines.