As a brand new pilot officer arriving at my Canberra squadron, I happened to have more than 100 hours of gliding under my belt. I had not thought of gliding my bomber – perhaps I had not been near any glider for the last eight months or so. The squadron QFI (Flt Lt Johnny Walker – excellent officer) thought the new pilot on his first check ride would be flummoxed by an unbriefed simulated double-flameout at night.
Sully had more airmanship built into him than many pilots. We universally recognise it. Some of that was an extensive understanding of what we might call one-time critical low speed energy management. The Sully model worked for me. The lessons would be relevant to a Hawk pilot and were essential, however little they actually controlled their falling meteor, to the pilots of Apollo. R3 did not have it in his armoury.
Last edited by rlsbutler; 13th Oct 2019 at 21:21.