Sully

Introduction

Sully is a book about a pilot who saved many lives by landing a plane on a river in New York. The book tells his life story and how he became a good pilot. He learned a lot from his time in the army and flying different planes. He also learned how to be ready for anything and how to stay calm when things go wrong. The book shows how his values helped him and others in difficult times.

This summary is about a book that tells a heroic story. The hero is Captain Sully Sullenberger, a pilot who landed a plane on a river and saved everyone on board. He was very skilled and calm in a scary situation. The summary also tells about his life and how he prepared for his job. He had strong values that made him a good person and a good leader. The summary says that his story can inspire people who face problems in their lives. He showed them how to be ready and how to keep going.

Chapter 1: Learning to do things by myself

Chesley B. Sullenberger’s father did many things by himself, like fixing the house and making things with wood. He taught his children to do the same, and to be careful and accurate. One time, Sullenberger cut a piece of wood too short by mistake. His father told him, “Measure twice, cut once,” meaning he should check everything before he does something that he can’t undo. Sullenberger liked to see the results of his work. He enjoyed cutting the grass or helping his father with the roof. He could see how much he had done and how much was left. He liked to have goals and to achieve them. Sullenberger knew what he wanted to do when he grew up. He wanted to join the army and then fly planes for a living. He was a serious and honest boy, who knew his good and bad points. He wrote about them in eighth grade. He said he was polite because of his parents, but he also said he was impatient and wanted everything to be perfect. His teacher said he was “doing fine,” which was a rare compliment back then. This feedback and the way people were expected to behave made him a strict, hard-working, and perfect person, which he thought made him a good pilot. Sullenberger also wrote about his family. He was proud of his sister, even though they sometimes argued, and he loved his mother for taking care of him. His father was his role model, who taught him many things and helped him learn from his mistakes. These relationships shaped his values and beliefs. Sullenberger loved his home, even though it was not perfect. It had uneven floors and not much money. But it was the house his grandfather built, and it was full of memories, lessons, and love. He was lucky to have such a home, with parents who taught him important life lessons.

Chapter 2: Life in the army

Sullenberger started his training at the Air Force Academy on June 23, 1969, and it changed him a lot. He came from a small town in Texas, and he met many different people there. Some were rich or had army families, but most were normal people like him. They all got haircuts to show they were starting something new, and they stopped caring about who they were before. Out of 1,406 who joined the academy, only 844 finished it. Sullenberger loved the beautiful scenery of the West, especially the mountains in Colorado. He was impressed by the new buildings of the academy, which was only 10 years old. He hoped to be part of the 15th class to graduate from there. The training at the academy was hard. Sullenberger wore his uniform and entered a new world of military rules, which was very different from his easy life before. He didn’t understand why they had to do so many hard things, but later he realized what they were for. The academy wanted to teach them values like duty, honor, and “service before self” by making them leave their comfort zone. They had to act on these values, not just say them, and the training made sure they learned them well. They had to say things like “Yes, sir,” “No, sir,” and “No excuse, sir,” all the time, showing they were responsible and accountable. This hard training made Sullenberger and his classmates very close. The Air Force Academy’s hard training helped Sullenberger a lot. He found out he was stronger and more determined than he thought. The academy also gave him fun opportunities, like flying in a fast military jet, which made him love flying even more. Sullenberger flew a lot at the academy. He liked flying gliders, which had no engines and felt like birds. Flying gliders taught him how to use the air to stay up, especially using warm air to go higher. He loved flying so much that he taught other people how to fly, and he got a prize for being the best flyer when he graduated in 1973. The Air Force Academy was not just a place to learn how to be a soldier. It also taught Sullenberger how to be a good person, how to know many things, and how to help others in different ways. Some people joked about the high standards of the academy, but they prepared them for hard situations outside.

Chapter 3: Starting over

In the late 1970s, Sullenberger was a loyal Air Force officer, but he had to leave soon. He loved flying fighter jets, but he felt his best days were over. He knew he had to do more than just fly well to get higher ranks. He had to do more office work and less flying, and he didn’t like that. In the army, it mattered how you looked and who you knew. You had to impress your bosses with more than just your flying skills. Sullenberger was good at flying, but he didn’t like to make friends with powerful people. He thought he could get ahead by being a good pilot alone. Also, the army had less money after the Vietnam War. They had to cut costs and save fuel, so pilots flew less. This was bad for pilots, who needed to practice a lot, especially with fast jets. Sullenberger had to think about what he wanted to do next: how often could he fly? He left the army on February 13, 1980. He said goodbye to his friends with a sad flight training. His boss thanked him warmly. He was done being a fighter pilot. He became a commercial pilot, but it was a bad time. The government changed the rules and the airlines had trouble. Many of them went bankrupt. There were not many jobs for pilots, but he got one at Pacific Southwest Airlines. He didn’t make much money and he started as a flight engineer on the Boeing 727. He joined the airlines when they were still fancy. Flying was still new and exciting for many people and everyone dressed up. But Sullenberger was happy to be in the airlines. He had to forget some of his army skills, but he was proud to be a pilot. He worked hard and did his best, but that didn’t mean he got promoted faster. He became a captain because of how the industry worked, not because of his own achievements. He flew for almost 30 years and carried about a million people. But most of them didn’t remember him until something happened on Flight 1549.

Chapter 4: A bad flight

January 15, 2009, was a cold and clear day. Sullenberger’s plane was ready to fly from LaGuardia Airport. This plane was used a lot by US airlines, and it had flown more than 16,000 times and over 25,000 hours. The flight started well with 150 people and three crew members on board. After taking off, they talked to the controller. The crew did everything right, telling their height, checking the plane, and changing the wings for going up. They saw the buildings of New York behind them, and everything seemed normal. But when they were almost 3,000 feet high and about a minute and a half into the flight, things went wrong. A group of big geese came towards the plane very fast. They were too close to avoid. The plane hit them hard, making loud noises all over, especially on the front, the wings, and both engines. Sullenberger had hit birds before, but this was different. Both engines lost power right away, showing they were badly damaged. The engines stopped working, making scary noises and shaking, then going quiet. This was the worst thing that could happen to a plane. It got worse when they smelled burnt birds inside the plane, showing the engines were broken. They knew both engines were not working, which was the biggest problem Sullenberger had ever faced in his 42 years of flying. The plane was losing speed and going down fast, over 1,000 feet every minute. Only 21.5 seconds after hitting the birds, the plane was over the Bronx and they could see the top of Manhattan. Sullenberger knew he had to act fast. He turned the plane quickly, looking for a place to land. He felt a terrible feeling that, unlike any other flight he had done, this one would not end on a runway.

Chapter 5: Saving the day

There was a big problem in the air, and they had to act fast. The Hudson River looked like the only place to land, even though it was risky. It was long and wide, and the water was calm that day. It could fit a big plane like theirs. Sullenberger knew they were in trouble, and he changed his mind. He followed a rule called “goal sacrificing.” It means when you can’t do everything, you do the most important thing. Here, the most important thing was to save people’s lives, even if it meant losing the plane, which cost $60 million. Before they landed on the water, he told the passengers: “Brace for impact!” As they went down, they saw the river banks and the tall buildings getting closer. It felt like the city was hugging them. Sullenberger was not scared, he was sure he could land on the water. As they went down, they had no power from the engines. They could only control the plane by tilting it up or down. They tried to keep the right speed by using gravity. The plane went down with its wings making it float in the air. It was not long since the birds hit them, but the water and land were near. They decided to tilt the plane up for landing. The back of the plane hit the water hard, while the front felt like a bumpy landing. The plane stopped on the water, and it showed how well they landed. The plane’s nose was up at the right angle, and the wings were straight. They went down faster than they wanted, but the plane was steady soon. They saw the city around them. They got out of the plane quickly. There were some problems, like the back doors not opening and water coming in, but everyone got out in a few minutes. Many boats, ferries, and helicopters helped them. They thought about what happened, and it was a hard day. They couldn’t save the plane, but they saved everyone on board. They would see their families again. It showed how they could think fast, choose well, and act skillfully in a crisis.

Summary

This is a story about Captain Sully Sullenberger. He was flying a plane with 155 people on board. He had to land the plane on a river because something went wrong. He saved everyone’s life. He was able to do this because he worked hard, never gave up, and learned a lot from his life. He was in the military and flew planes for a long time. He wrote a book about his life and what he learned. He wants to show us that we should always do our best and be ready for anything.

About the author

Chesley B. Sullenberger III flies planes and knows a lot about safety. He taught other pilots and helped find out why plane accidents happened. He was the best student at flying when he went to the US Air Force Academy. He also got two more degrees after that.