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David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
I went to see Sully played by Tom Hanks. How superb was that.
It made me rethink about things I took for granted in my previous life in BA.
If the same thing happened to me during departure from JFK, we were always
packed to the gunnels with 400 pax and carrying about 90 tonnes of jet fuel plus another 30 to 50 tonnes of freight. Turning back or picking another aerodrome in the local area would never have been an option and the Hudson would also have been the chosen point. It did happen when I was flying VR inthe RAF at Kinloss in Scotland. The aeroplane was a Nimrod MR2 and 89 seagulls were counted as going through the engines, three and a half engines were destroyed and the aeroplane came down in the forest to the north east of the airfield killing two pilots and seriously injuring other crew members.
If you have not seen Sully yet, you really must. You could hear a pin drop
right until the end of the final credits.
Absolutely Superb.
 
Don't suppose you would know, but is it technically accurate?

Theres nothing thats going to annoy me more than to find glaring errors in the film.

Sully was one lucky SOB that day. But that decision, to land in the Hudson, that will go down in aviation folk law. Proved totally correct, but I'm not sure how many others could have or would have on that morning.
 

Randy V

Moderator-Admin
Staff member
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Lifetime Supporter
Ditching in a light aircraft is one thing, but doing it in a fully laden ship that Sully had is something else. With the glide ratio of a crowbar, Sully had a lot of guardian angels flying with him that day.
I will go see the film... He will always be a hero in my book...
 

David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
The film is technically accurate and filmed without any emotion whatsoever.
It is difficult to believe it is not a documentary. His dialogue with his wife
is something that he may have a record of, or just a recollection.
 

Doug S.

The protoplasm may be 72, but the spirit is 32!
Lifetime Supporter
It's on my "go do" list, David!

Tom Hanks is one of my faves....absolutely LOVE his performance in "Castaway", another flick about an airplane ride that didn't reach its destination.

Cheers!

Doug
 

Steve

Supporter
I have very little knowledge of airplanes........but would struggle to get into a plane with the name "Nimrod"

Even with my limited knowledge, it's clear Sully had balls of brass.
 
Sully is a remarkably humble and quiet man. He lives not far from me in Danville, California, in the east Bay Area near San Francisco. I saw him up at Travis Air Force Base a few weeks ago doing a book signing in the lobby of the Base Exchange, and was enormously gracious dealing with the public. A true gentleman.
 
Yep, great film. Most of cinema audience waited till final credits had rolled past before they left. Saw quite a few damp eyes too.
Hope Sully went and bought a lottery ticket that day, he would have won a fortune.
100% recommended film.
 
A really nice flair that further reduced the forward speed. Plus keeping the wings level and NO trees to hit. It was as though he had practiced wheels up landings many many times. I like the part when he had the CP get the Emergency Proceedures manual out and look for the procedure, after he stablized the AC. After thousands of autorotations over 3+ decades, the real thing is a walk in the park.
 

David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
Hi Grady,
Just a small point - Autorotation is one of the ways of landing a helicopter
with little or damaged propulsion and does not apply to fixed wing aeroplanes -
which the Airbus A320 clearly was. Both Pilots know the QRH inside out and backwards (the emergency checklist?)and Sully taking over control from the First Officer is normal. His (Sully)next question wuld beto ask if there was such a procedure for a double engine flameout but there is not. He started the APU (Auxilliary Power Unit - a small jet engine in the rear of the aeroplane, early on in the emergency which would provide electrics and hydraulics to the point of impact on the river after which it would stop working.
But that changes nothing - on that day,Sully became a hero for all time.
 
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For a second, I started wondering why we couldn’t have helicopters with the blades on the bottom. Then I remembered, those are called lawnmowers.
 

Randy V

Moderator-Admin
Staff member
Admin
Lifetime Supporter
Helicopters don't fly anyway... They're just so ugly that the earth repells them!
:D

Agreed -- Sully is and always will be a Hero!
 

Doug S.

The protoplasm may be 72, but the spirit is 32!
Lifetime Supporter
For a second, I started wondering why we couldn’t have helicopters with the blades on the bottom. Then I remembered, those are called lawnmowers.

...or a hovercraft?

...and agreed on Sully's hero status!

Cheers!!

Doug
 
The wife and I just watched the movie, and how he managed to pull that off is what miracles are made of, and how they tried to crucify him with a simulation that said he could have made it, and we all know simulations don't lie, but as Sulley said they don't take into account the human side of things either, and the fact they had 17 practices before they made it to the airport, he had 1 shot and a plane load of real people, a remarkable feat by a remarkable man.
and a brilliant movie and Tom as usual gave an Oscar winning performance.

john
 
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