Dead Stick Landings
The media I watched has ignored that Sully is a qualified glider pilot. The Gimli Glider, Air Canada 767 that landed deadstick, was also Captained by a qualified glider pilot.
Back in 1977, after the Southern Airways DC-9 had a double engine failure due to hail ingestion, they landed on a road, taking out a corner grocery store, with some loss of life. Due to crappy weather radar of the day, and insufficient training, they had flown into the eye of a thunderstorm near Atlanta. They were easily in reach of an airport, but chose a road festooned with power poles.
I talked to a lot of airline pilots back then, and few had any idea of the glide ratio of their birds, and fewer yet were sure of best glide speeds.
Avionics have come a long way since 1977, and training has too. Were I a commercial pilot, I would get some deadstick time. In my case, half my landings were at a field with 1600 feet beyond the displaced threshhold, in which every landing could be realistically deadstick.
GB