U.S. Airways better keep a close eye on their heroic pilot, Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger. In fact, a bonus may be in order. Virgin Air kabillionaire Richard Branson wants to steal Sully and is willing to make him an offer the talented pilot can't refuse. I’d like him to come fly for us,” Branson told the N.Y. Daily News LA-based reporter Leah Sydney. “We’ll make him the best-paid pilot at Virgin — we’ll give him double [the salary of] anybody else. He also can become one of the astronauts in my intergalactic spaceship company. The man can write his own ticket with me.” Told of the offer, Sullenberger sounded interested.
“That’s amazing,” said the “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot who saved the lives of 155 people when he landed a jetliner in the icy Hudson River on Jan. 15. “I hadn’t heard that. I will be happy to entertain all the things that are coming my way.” Sullenberger will no doubt get a heroes standing ovation with his Flight 1549 crew at today’s Super Bowl. Branson says that Sully’s cool actions were breathtaking. "Every single thing he could have done right, he did right — from the second he made that decision not to go to that local airport, to put the plane down in the water, to the way he looked after everybody.” Branson knows from near-death flight experiences.
“Pulling the wrong rip cord on a sky dive," he told Sydney. "Crashing into the sea five times. Landing in the Arctic in a balloon when I was meant to land in Los Angeles. I’ve been rescued numerous times by helicopters.” Branson definitely needs Sully on his team.
I dont think Branson is having a go at his own pilots, in fact if you read his latest book, he suggests that Virgin only recruit the best pilots they can find with thousands of hours on type and plenty of experience.
Hats off to Sully and all the crew for doing a good job as far as im concerned, im sure many would have done the same, there is no saying the outcome would have been the same.
What Branson said is, in other words, a 2 fingered salute to his own pilots and seniority. Probably the worst bit of man management I have heard in a long time. He knows he can get away with it now of course, as he will need to shed a load of pilots soon.
Not taking anything away from Scully and the crew as was unlucky with the birds but got lucky in the end. We all need a bit of luck in this business and he (THEY) had it that day. Also he did his job right. Good for him. What would be a test of his metal, would he take the job, should he be offered?
As for whiskers employing the best pilots. Well I'm not so sure about that to be quite honest, as I have flown with one or 2 that have made the cut with VS and one for sure I would not have given a command of anything. Oh yes he certainly had the right "tools" to get the job but as for being the best, no way IMHO.
Last edited by johnriketes; 3rd Feb 2009 at 13:33.
Trashley said in post number 11 of this thread:
"I can see that Richard Branson appreciates the high skills of Capt. Sullenberger.. Can you show me the bit where he doesn't think his pilots are any good, like your title describes..???"
My answer is I never said he thinks his pilots are any good (as you said), or not any good. My title was "Branson considers his pilots are not so good ?" Means to say perhaps Branson thinks his pilots are only , at the most, only half as good as Captain Sully. Why does Guava say that?
Well Branson wants to pay Captain Sully " double [the salary of] anybody else" and the corollary of that is he wants to pay his own pilots only half or less of the salary that he would pay Captain Sully. That means to say that he thinks that not one of his pilots is half as good as Captain Sully. Branson's pilots have been fortunate , or perhaps unfortunate , not to have been tested by this kind of spectacular event. Guava is surprised to see such appalling man management exhibited by our Richard.
We all know that Captain Sully did a most excellent job, but this thread is intended to be about Branson considering his own pilots to be relatively useless.
"In last weeks Flight International, it was reported that it was the F/O was the the Flying Pilot, and Capt. S. was the NFP, so I guess it was the F/O who did the landing right????"
The F/O may have been the handling pilot on departure, but once the RAT was deployed, the left hand seat occupant would have had to be the PF as only the left hand displays would have been powered in the Emergency Electrical Configuration.
I used to be an employee of Sir RB. I can't say I had the impression he held us in high regard, because at the time he was trying to sack about 40% of us. I just remeber flying him to Hong Kong and him coming up to the flight deck and breaking what he thought was the good news that things post 9/11 weren't as bad as they thought and they could offer a lot of us our jobs back. It seemed a bit of a dissapointment to him that all four of us had accepted other jobs and were intent on leaving.
A point I hope he's considering while he's mulling over redundancies in the current economic climate.
I't is very unlikely that a double engine failure occurs. But, when it does their are not many options. Th US Airways crew were lucky that the weather conditions were in this crew's favor and he could actually make a plan i.e the river. With the rate of decent it look's like their were not many options. The flying skills are not in question!
We all know that Captain Sully did a most excellent job, but this thread is intended to be about Branson considering his own pilots to be relatively useless.
Utter tosh.
As John R says, the inferences you are drawing are ludicrous.
Perhaps Guava should go away and think about what Guava says a bit more, shouldn't Guava..?
Does anyone know what he said after the G-VSKY incident back in November 1997? That's the one that scraped up the tarmac at Heathrow after some of the main gear got hung up due to leaving an important pin off the end of the LAX runway. It was an immaculate landing under the circumstances.
Remember that Sully is also a consultant. If RB employed him as such he would cost more than double any Pilot. RB is looking beyond his flying skills. He'd be getting a lot for his ROI IMHO.
"Facetious" is obviously a word that "John R"(post number 25 on this thread) uses with abandon against people who do not exactly agree with him, but it appears that "John R" does not exactly know the meaning of "facetious" . Perhaps he needs to refer to a dictionary. In fact I am not joking, I am very serious and I understand our Richard to be a man who says what he means and means what he says, so no need to talk about "figures of speech". It doesn't wash. Richard's remarks may have been ill considered, but they were certainly an insult to his own crews. Is he losing his grip, or has he only lost his touch? It doesn't look good to me.
“Pulling the wrong rip cord on a sky dive," he told Sydney. "Crashing into the sea five times. Landing in the Arctic in a balloon when I was meant to land in Los Angeles. I’ve been rescued numerous times by helicopters.”
Just a shame he dosn't offer all the rescue service people jobs (with a pay freeze of course!)
Lets face it - the great bearded publicity machine must have been hopping mad when he found out that the successful ditching everybody was raving about did not involve one of his own aircraft / crew. Smacks of his attempts to 'buy' Concorde , maybe fly it once , and then maybe ground it forever with the VS logo on it. Can't help himself .
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